Credit Cards

Credit card statistics: Visa vs. MasterCard

March 6, 2006 by Emily Peters 8 Comments

Inside the February issue of The Nilson Report is an interesting comparison between Visa and MasterCard. According to the article, the number of Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards increased 68.6 million in 2005 to a total of 862.5 million cards in circulation. With the current total US population around 290 million, this equals 2.9 pieces of plastic for every man, woman and child in the America. The article also mentioned that:

• $1.705 trillion was spent on Visa and MasterCard credit card and debit card accounts combined during 2005.
• The average Visa credit card user made 62 transactions in 2005 with an average of $101 per transaction.
• The average MasterCard credit card user made 44 transactions in 2005 with an average of $102 per transaction.
• The average Visa credit card user spent $8,162 in 2005 while the average MasterCard user spent only $5,920 in 2005.
• Both Visa and MasterCard reported that their credit card fraud losses equaled 0.09% of their outstandings ($618 billion). That equates to $556 million in fraud losses each year.
• MasterCard reported more credit card charge-offs and more delinquencies (late payments) than Visa.

Are you a Visa or MasterCard customer? Or both?  Do you fit these statistics? Share your feedback in the comments section below.