Word: mastercard
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...MasterCard and Visa bitterly fight the plastic money...
...looks and feels like a credit card, and it can ring up purchases as easily. But MasterCard II, which was introduced last week, is not the same as familiar plastic money. With a normal credit card, the bill for a shopping spree may not arrive for weeks. But with MasterCard II, which bankers call a debit card, payment takes place instantly. A computer deducts funds from the shopper's bank account and transfers them into that of the store or restaurant where purchases have been made. Cardholders may carry either the regular MasterCard, MasterCard II, or both...
...MasterCard II is another salvo in the continuing battle between Interbank Card Association, whose 11,000 members are the financial institutions, primarily banks, that issue MasterCard, and rival Visa International, which has about 11,500 members. MasterCard (formerly Master Charge) and Visa are each carried by more than 60 million people in the U.S., but the tide of success is running with Visa. Five years ago, approximately 6 million more people carried Master Charge than Visa, then called BankAmericard. Through shrewd marketing, and a court ruling that allowed banks to issue both cards, Visa now leads...
...Your credit-card mess?" Featherless had been despondent the last time I saw him, because Visa, MasterCard and American Express had taken away his plastic money. "I've been declared a cardless person," he had said then, pouring ashes from his backyard grill on his head. "I'm a man without a card." He had the haunted look of a traveler condemned to shuttle reservationless between Marriott and Holiday Inn, with no Magic Fingers to strum his backbone...
...Nothing to it. If MasterCard cuts your air hose, the Government comes to the rescue with a Nansen Credit Card-a Cartercard, they're calling it-and you're back in the stores without missing a beat...