Is MasterCard losing ground to VISA?
 

After reading this thread, I began to think of some of the good reward cards out there, and realized Visa has more than MC. The only good MC I can think of are by Barclays - VS, US, LH and the Arrivals.

The VS Mastercard is issued by BofA.

I'm in the industry. Nope MC is doing great

Financially maybe, but in terms of product offerings?

V is just a bigger card issuer, isn't it? But MA has more room for growth.

There are several other strong MasterCard products: Citi Prestige, Citi Executive AAdvantage, Diners Club, HSBC Premier.

Barclays also offers the SallieMae MasterCard which has 5% cash back at gas stations (up to $250 per month), 5% back at grocery stores (up to $250 per month), and 5% back at bookstores including Amazon (up to $750 per month).

(I recently came to appreciate that card even more when I recently realized it was a way to get the absolute best gas price in town. Sam's Club and Costco usually have the lowest gas price in town. Sam's Club accepts MasterCard and their gas station's merchant category code is that of a gas station. So with the SallieMae MasterCard you get another 5% cash back off the lowest gas price in town. Pretty sweet deal.)

I think some of this came from the fact that Chase is going Visa exclusive in 2014. The thing is that they were already very Visa heavy for a long time...you pretty much had to go out of your way to ask for a Mastercard product for some of their popular cards like Freedom, Sapphire and Slate. I have a Freedom Mastercard and that's only because my wife began with a Slate Mastercard she's had for 15 years that we product converted last year. Since Chase is one of the most popular lenders with the online community, them ending the relationship with Mastercard looks bigger than the facts on the ground.

I think in some countries they are losing market share but not massively. I know here in the UK, a few issuers are now issuing American Express networked cards when they were previously MasterCards. Some issuers like Capital One stopped issuing Visa cards though and now only offer MasterCard, so its swings and roundabouts really.

Something MasterCard messed up on though was Debit cards. Most debits cards are either Visa and the ones that are MasterCard (Or Maestro) are often processed on a local debit network in the country of issue and actually only use MasterCard outside of the country.

I think it depends if you're just seeing the US market alone compared to viewing things with the US as well as the rest of the world.

MC is quite strong outside the US, especially in Europe with huge growth in Japan and Asia.

Agreed. Also just because MasterCard may be losing ground doesn't mean it is losing it to Visa. American Express and some of the more localised cards (Like JCB) have seen quite a lot of growth worldwide.

The recently launched quicksilver is with Visa, although the QuicksilverOne for those with avg credit is with MC.

Interesting, I didn't know this was happening. I wonder what will happen with the Ink cards?

Also, I wonder if it would be beneficial to do a product change with my Freedom/CSP from visa to mc in hopes of being eligible for another sign up bonus in 2-5 years. :confused:

Is DC still around? the others seem to be expensive.

Yes, but they do not accept applications for new consumer accounts (in Canada or USA).