Most widely accepted internationally - Visa or Mastercard?
 

I've seen a lot of discussion about Visa vs. Mastercard with regard to miles, points, and currency exchange rates but nothing but bits and pieces about which card is most widely accepted internationally.

1. Which card is most widely accepted internationally - Visa or Mastercard?

2. How about mainland China and Mexico?

3. Is there a reliable source of this information or do travelers just have to poll each other to find out?

4. Should a prudent traveler carry both?

Visa advertised throughout the Beijing Olympics that Visa was the ONLY card accepted there. I've been to places in Mexico that would only take one or the other but that was quite a while ago. So what's the current situation?

I always travel with at least 3 cards (Visa, MC, Amex). In Beijing 3 weeks ago the hotel I checked into was having credit card validation problems and could not process my AMEX (2% forex, 2% rebate). Rather than give them my Visa (2% forex, 1% rebate), they let me come back the next day and they manually processed the card with a card imprinter.

I have a Mastercard along but as it charges a 3% forex rate it's the last card I was use outside the U.S., but I like the peace of mind in having an extra card along.

I find myself using my ATM card more and more these days because I'm not charged for foreign transactions and they don't surcharge the exchange rates. That doesn't work well for hotel bills, but is fine for daily spending money as I'm out walking about. I can recall at least twice over the years that the ATM card would not work, though, probably because of network issues. In one of those cases I got cash out using a credit card.

I used my Visa card once, on the last day, for a visit to the Superstore gift store. There weren't really any other venues on the Olympic grounds there to use it at (there weren't any ticket windows to buy event tickets). A bottle of water was 45 cents, and a Coke 60 cents, so folks weren't breaking out the credit cards for those.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter which card has more acceptance locations--what matters more is what is accepted when you go to make a purchase at whatever merchant. I always have a Mastercard, Visa, and an American Express card in my wallet. Just the other day I was in the local dollar store, and they only accepted Visa, Discover, and ATM cards.

I have seen merchants accepting only Visa, those accepting only Mastercard, and those accepting only American Express. I haven't seen any accepting only Discover, but there's probably a few somewhere (thought I don't have one).

Visa by far

Yes. I always carry Visa (my Pentagon Federal Credit Union favorite card for foreign travel- I actually make a 1/4% profit on foreign exchange transactions), and Mastercard and American Express for emergencies only.

The hospital in Arequipa, Peru, accepted only Mastercard when we needed to use a card for an emergency.

Only Mastercard was accepted on Easter Island. YMMV

A paranoid traveler (as I am) carries all three.

I carry Visa, MC, Amex, but Visa's the most widely accepted I've seen, Amex the least.

Oddities: Sam's Club only accepts Discover and recently MC, Costco only accepts Amex.

As a merchant, I'm surprised at the amount of Visa charges compared to MC. I consider them the same in all respects. I know Canadian customers have told me that MC were harder to get, and that Visa was the average persons credit card.

My credit card/online sales are:

Visa 50%
MC 25%
Amex 8%
Discover 4%
Paypal 13%

Actually Discover card is the most widely accepted credit card in China.

This is very true, because Discover is accepted on the China Union Pay network. More info here: http://www.discoverchinaacceptance.com/

And discover has no forex fees!

When I was in Brazil a couple of summers ago, I was surprised by the number of places that only took MasterCard.

There were also places, that would take locally-issued Visa/MC, but not cards issued by international banks. I didn't know that was allowed, actually. I guess the "honor all cards" rule doesn't apply everywhere.

I was in Brazil (Rio) last year and Mastercard was definitely the most widely accepted card. Even the street vendors had portable Mastercard readers. I also just returned from Costa Rica where all three were accepted pretty much anywhere that accepted credit cards.

Honor all cards does apply everywhere - the merchant probably didn't want the liability of an international fraudulent charge, If they show the card network logo, they take anything with that logo on it. You could report them to your card issuer as a "merchant violation incident report."

It isn't.

Domestically I carry AMEX (preferred) and MC as backup where the former is not accepted. Except backwards government agencies those 2 have gotten me by

International I carry AMEX, MC, and VISA. VISA is really not necessary IMO, but the Cap 1 Visa just happens to have 0% Forex Fees

Anyone else have any other experiences overseas of whether you feel is more widely accepted? MC or Visa?

in Thailand, I saw many " we prefer mastercard signs".

They hate Amex.

In my experience, it's exceedingly rare for merchants to take MC or Visa but not both. It's quite common for merchants not to take AmEx, though, and in countries where surcharges are legal and socially acceptable, AmEx surcharges tend to be higher.

It's not hard just to have one of each, though--a lot of American banks issue both, and Chase even lets you get the same card as either MC or Visa.

The only exceptions I can think of are the Olympics (Visa only, by contract with Visa) and American wholesale clubs (Costco takes only AmEx, Sam's takes only MC).

I think you may have missed the "internationally" feature of the question... Here in Japan merchants seem to strongly prefer visa.

Chase (freedom as visa and mc) and Citi both have this in the US. Shoot, Citi has AMEX, MC, and Visa versions of some of their AA cards. The common issuance of visa and mc has to do with how the two organization were founded. The ability to issue AMEX is a result of a lawsuit.

Small stores Visa only, and Tim Hortons Mastercard only?
 

I read somewhere (maybe on FT or another credit card forum) that small ethnic stores sometimes only accept Visa but not Mastercard in Canada (primarily in Vancouver and Toronto). Also, the famous Tim Hortons does not accept Visa but only Mastercard?!

Can any Canadians or anyone confirm this?

If a small Canadian store takes Visa but not MC (or vice versa) it is usually because they violated a term of their contract. It is extremely unusual for a merchant services provider to not offer both Visa and MC together as a package deal. In fact, one of the things that merchants are after in Canada is the ability to pick and choose, a la carte, which cards they will accept. It is more common for a store like that to just offer Interac Debit as the only card option.

As for Tim Hortons? There was an exclusivity arrangement with Mastercard years ago as Tim Hortons was the launch customer of their PayPass technology. These days you can pay by Visa/MC/Amex or Interac at Tim Hortons. And cash as well, I guess.

I'm from southern Brazil and establishments here seem to accept Visa and Mastercard equally. When I was at the beach last month in Balneário Camboriú - SC, I noticed even people that sell things as bracelets in the sand of the beach accept cards

When I was in Puerto Vallarta recently card acceptance wasn't nearly as common as in the US. Even at places that took cards people generally paid cash if possible. The weird thing was the number of places that seemed to only have the Visa logo in their windows. I'm not sure if they would have taken MasterCard if given one, but I imagine they would have.

I was in Colombia for two months at the end of the last year. My Visa worked everywhere. I just assumed they would have taken MC as well. I'll take a closer look next time I travel.

Country-wide or region-wide speaking, I was recently in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and it was PITA to go look for a ATM that accepts Mastercard. My impression is that Visa just dominates Master in these countries/region.

YES! I would NEVER travel without diversifying 1) debit+ATM-that-can-be-used-as-if-it-were-credit vs. actual-credit, 2) brand (visa/mc/etc), and 3) where I stash them (get one of those waistband things you tuck down your pants and never let it off your body unless you're showering/swimming - and then lock it somewhere - your passport should be in this, too; if you're a woman, consider doing a skirt+shirt instead of dresses for dress-up so you can still reach down your waistband).

Typically, I think you do well with 1 all-purpose (debit+ATM+acts-as-credit) "refunds your ATM fees and has no foreign transaction fees" card in your wallet from a bank that gives debit cards as good of fraud protection as they give their credit cards. Then have a 2nd "all-purpose" card in your money belt in case you need cash and your first card is stolen - doesn't have to be as awesome as the first. Finally, have a credit card in your money belt - again, for emergencies (e.g. unexpected need to purchase more than you have in the bank). One of the 2 in your money belt should be a different brand than the one in your wallet.

No need to keep more than the 1 in your wallet; it's thief-bait.

I would only diversify past Visa/MC if I were going somewhere that the guidebooks said I needed something else.

If I were carrying other cards for the perks (e.g. free luggage), I'd keep them in the money belt and only flash them as necessary.

MasterCard is growing quickly in Africa and globally has just as many acceptance locations as Visa.

If you need to find an ATM in the future, you can use the global MC ATM locator app or this link: http://www.mastercard.us/cardholder-...m-locator.html Just pick your country.

Bizarrely I noticed an ATM here in the UK that only accepted Visa and American Express (For domestic UK cards its irrelevant as all debit and credit cards use the local LINK network) and it even had a message on it saying that MasterCard wasn't accepted.

In south America I've come across one or or two places that have only taken MasterCard and sometimes Amex or Diners Club as well but no Visa.

It's a slight tangent, but here is another data point for this topic: A couple of years ago I was in French Polynesia, and for about 4 days, VISA was 'down' in the entire country. MC worked fine. So as has been mentioned, when travelling internationally, it's not a bad idea to have one of each.