What’s the point of Visa and Mastercard if it’s always from a bank? AmEx cards are produced and processed by them only and not any other processor, so why can’t banks make credit cards without Visa or Mastercard, or vice-versa?

Question

What’s the point of Visa and Mastercard if it’s always from a bank? AmEx cards are produced and processed by them only and not any other processor, so why can’t banks make credit cards without Visa or Mastercard, or vice-versa?

In: 942

Answer 1

Let’s say you and your friends discover that you can make the most delicious cookies. They’re so good that they don’t even need to be fresh, even a few days old and they are still fantastic.

So you decide to sell them. And people all over the country want to order them.

Which means you need to buy and develop a huge network of delivery trucks and drivers and routes to deliver cookies to everyone across the country.

Or you could just use FedEx or UPS or USPS.

That’s what Visa and Mastercard are. They are the delivery networks that banks and merchants use to process the payments.