Credit card- Visa, MasterCard, or Rupay?

There are majorly three-card service providers in India. These companies Visa, MasterCard & Rupay, are the medium through which transactions can be made. Credit cards are beneficial to use as it helps the customer avail goods or spend money on credit and repay the amount in a later stage to the bank. Banks are the ones who have tie-ups with these companies to provide cards to the customers. In return, the card companies charge some royalty on every transaction to the bank, which the bank charges to the merchant. The bank also charges the annual maintenance fee to the customer as a service fee, out of which the bank has to pay part of the amount to the card companies as a service fee. These cards come with a chip on the front side of the card and a magnetic strip behind it for the use of transactions. The credit card can be used for the offline mode by swiping the card and through the online mode through payment gateway solutions provided by the website or a mobile application. The bank decides whichever card is to be issued to the customer, while very rarely any option is given to the customer for the choice of card.

In general, whichever card is provided to the customer does not matter much. Also, card providers like Diners club & American express are not much popular in India. The cards are beneficial to the customers as there are various discount offers available to the customers like offers on redemption of points, discount offers on dining & alliances program, discount on online shopping & discount on merchandise in select stores. The banks usually charge 2% of the transaction value as commission from the merchants. In return, the bank gives reward points to the customers on the amount spent. On every Rs.100 spent by the customer, the bank provides one point to the customer, and one point is equal to 25 paise or else 50 paise to the customer. The customer can redeem the points by either adjusting the amount on the credit card bill or else by taking vouchers of the same amount redemption or else converting the credit card points into air miles. Thus many attractive offers are being made available to the customer to opt for credit cards.

Following are the description of various types of cards:

• Rupay credit card:

The Rupay credit card is an Indian brand founded in 2014 and is useful only for transactions within India. Rupay has a lower processing fee and faster transaction processing as compared to any other service provider. The Rupay has a classic credit card, platinum credit card & Rupay select card. This card has free accident insurance of Rs.10 lakh.

• Visa:

Visa is an American multinational organization headquartered in the USA. Visa is the most popular service provider in India. Also, through Visa, credit card payments can be made across the globe due to its worldwide presence. The payment or transactions can be made to any part of the world through a Visa credit card. Visa companies have more advanced payment gateway solutions like contactless transactions in offline mode through swiping machines. The cards can also be used for online transactions anywhere across the world and are widely accepted all over the world. There could be hardly or almost nil merchants anywhere across the world where Visa cards are not accepted. A visa card has got global recognition and is widely being distributed as a credit card by banks.

• MasterCard:

MasterCard is also a company incorporated in the USA and is a popular company with a presence in India. MasterCard can be said as the second most popular credit card service provider in India, next only to Visa. MasterCard is accepted across 200 countries across the globe and has got global recognition. MasterCard was founded in the year 1966 in the USA and is having a presence in India as well for decades.

All three service providers are best in class and have more or less similar benefits to the customers. The customers who do not move anywhere outside India are recommended for the Rupay credit card as it has faster processing and a lower merchant deduction rate. While as for the people who frequently travel internationally can utilize Visa or else MasterCard credit cards which have global acceptance.