Should You Take A MasterCard, Visa Card Or A Rupay Card?

In India, the last few decades or ever since we have known, two credit cards have dominated the scene - Mastercard and the Visacard. Now a new player the RupayCard is also making its presence felt, largely in the debit card field.

Should you take a Mastercard, Visa Card or a RuPay Card?

Most cards today are either Visa or a Mastercard, simply because of their wide acceptance.

However, most of the time the executive visits us and we are concerned with the bank that is selling the card and not whether it a MasterCard or a Visa Card.

Let us understand this with an example. If I want a fuel card from Citibank to save on fuel, I am least interested whether it is a MasterCard or a Visa Card. For me, I am getting a card that saves me on fuel. Similarly, for shopping, air tickets etc.

Now, both, the Visa Card and the Master Card are the same in every respect. They are accepted at millions of establishments across the globe, their rewards are generally the same and most other things.

However, on very rare ocassions one card partners exclusively, which forces us to take these cards. Otherwise the tie-ups are generally initiated by the banks.

In fact, instead of focusing on taking the MasterCard or Visa, the question should be: How will it benefit me in terms of my purchases?

For example, if I am getting airmiles through a particular card and I am a frequent traveller, I will opt for the same. It does not matter with what it is co-branded.

Now a Rupay Card is slightly different from the MasterCard or the Visa Card. It is not an international card, but a home grown card.

The RupayCard distinguishes itself from the Master card and the Visa, in the sense that the costs involved are far lesser and hence the card could be cheaper. Another difference between the Visa Card, Master card and the Rupay is that the data would remain within the country. That really is not so much of a concern though.

At the moment we are not sure if the Rupay has a credit card. Of course, it has a debit card, but the dominance is not as much as the MasterCard and the Visa Card. It is catching up in terms of numbers though the belief is that a bulk of it is coming because of the large number of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Accounts.

As regards costs there is some confusion as to whether the MasterCard, Visa Card or the Rupay Card is cheaper.

The one problem with the Rupay Card though is that it does not have the acceptance like the Visa Card and the MasterCard. For example, the international acceptance is really low. Though there are plans of international tie-ups that would ensure that there is acceptance throughout the globe.

We are hence not suggesting that you take a MasterCard Or a Visa Card Or A Rupay Card. You have to see your own requirement and what suits you the best. As mentioned earlier, if you are heavily into shopping and you are getting good reward points for a particular card, you should stick to that.

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