Mastercard

A credit card payment system formed from the ICA (Interbank Card Association), and now with over 20,000 Worldwide banks as members. When you are offered a credit card, it will usually either be a Mastercard or a Visa, although other credit cards include American Express, Diners’ Club, Discover and JCB. You are very unlikely to notice any major difference between levels of acceptance for Visa or Mastercard at retail outlets, although some banks and cash machines will only enable cash advances of one card type – for example Halifax and many other former building societies will only do Visa cash advances.

For more financial terms, please visit our mortgages glossary, or our general financial services glossary.