MasterCard Worldwide is the worlds largest provider of payment systems in the financial services market. As of 2016, the company provides services in more than 210 countries, serving tens of thousands of financial institutions. In addition to serving customers through physical banking products, one of the corporations key vectors is payments in the global network.

The largest payment system first announced itself in 1966. Several powerful American banks have merged into an organization called the ICA - Interbank Card Association. The first banking product was the Master Charge card, which gained significant acceptance in the American market, which led to the entry of new financial institutions into the ICA organization. Two years later, MasterCard International entered the European market, which became possible after signing a corresponding agreement with the European concern Eurocard.

The name "MasterCard" was introduced at the official level only in 1979, and the following year the financial corporation became one of the world leaders. At the end of 1980, 56 million MasterCards were issued. At the beginning of the third millennium PS underwent a powerful reorganization, as a result of which the company received the status of a joint stock company. Since 2006, the company has been called MasterCard Worldwide and is considered a reliable and efficient service. The number of transactions that go through the payment system during the year exceeds 24 billion. The number of operations that the system can skip per minute exceeds 2300.

 

Service card products

The payment service has created a wide range of card products, which is formed based on the social status and income level of the client. Due to the huge segment of card categories, MasterCard payment is extremely popular. Each product has a specific set of services that are available to the cardholder.

 

The company currently positions the following types of cards:

 

Maestro

The card is a classic option that allows you to protect the client from the need to carry cash. The money is in the account, and even if the MasterCard is stolen, the blocking is completed within a few minutes.

Standart MasterCard

The card is a tool that is essential in everyday life, since it provides the client with payment for the purchase of goods and services. The card can be used when paying for goods in the global network, paying for utilities, recharging an account in a mobile phone and others.

 

Debit MasterCard

This financial product allows the user to get some advantages, in particular, to withdraw money from various ATMs without commission. The card belongs to the category of debit services.

 

World MasterCard

The financial market instrument belongs to the premium segment. Since the card is presented as a product aimed at people who travel frequently, an insurance policy is a prerequisite for top-up. What criteria the policy must meet is decided by the issuing bank. Despite the fact that MasterCard World payments can be made through the global network, the card is issued only in physical format. A prerequisite for the production of a World card is embossing, since in some countries, when paying for services, for example, car rental, this detail is given special attention.

 

Premium MasterCard cards

Premium cards differ among themselves by the content of services offered by the MasterCard payment system. For example, when servicing gold card holders, the emphasis is on information services. The user can expect to receive information about the necessary documents to enter a certain country, which organization or institution is better to contact during a foreign business trip, etc. Also, MasterCard gold cards provide the following privileges:

obtaining insurance policies;
discounts when booking hotels;
discount in elite catering establishments;
discounts in car rental services.
If a bank card is lost, then its holder can quickly receive it anywhere in the world. The exception is third world countries, which do not have MasterCard representative offices. The card is issued after contacting the service department of the country in which the client is located.

All of these services are received by clients at a high level. In the EU, MasterCard payments using premium cards are available exclusively to persons with privileged status. These clients hold high positions and have significant income. In the countries of the post-Soviet space, the situation looks somewhat different. Financial institutions independently classify users and the list of services that the card will have. Therefore, today MasterCard platinum cards do not provide a wide range of additional services and are becoming available to the bulk of the population. On the domestic market today you can find Gold cards of absolutely different levels.

 

Platinum MasterCard

The card is presented in the premium segment and offers users more additional privileges compared to World. When issuing such a card, the payment platform invites financial institutions to provide the client with a high credit limit. Additional services can be:

availability of a personal manager;
discounts on certain banking products;
the possibility of obtaining insurance when visiting other countries (up to 10,000 USD).
MasterCard Platinum cardholders have the opportunity to open other types of cards, for example, Priority Traveler. The payment systems proposals for improving the service are of a recommendatory nature, and the final decision is made by the financial institution. For this reason, the content of services within a particular bank card differs, as well as the cost of their service, and in one country.

 

World Elite MasterCard

The card offers its holders a unique level of service, which consists in providing personal advice at any time of the day, regardless of location. Users can count on services of a financial and non-financial nature, the highest level of security and confidentiality.

 

Innovative products: MasterCard Contactless

Currently, the innovative contactless payment MasterCard Contactless operates in more than 3 million points of sale worldwide. Payment takes place instantly in one motion. It is necessary to make sure that the Contactless logo is present, and then bring the card to the terminal. After the beep sounds, the purchase process is complete. Payment is quick and convenient, and the process itself takes no more than two seconds. The payment procedure is completely controlled by the user, since the card is constantly in his hands.

The safety of using the technology is confirmed by three key factors:

the system can withdraw money only once;
the cashier will not be able to use the information of the MasterCard card, since he does not have access to it;
the transaction is encoded with special dynamic characters, which excludes the use of data by third parties.

MasterCard MoneySend

To carry out transactions between bank card holders, regardless of affiliation with financial institutions, the MasterCard payment system offers to use the MoneySend option in real time. Payment between card accounts can be done through terminals, using a mobile device or computer. The service does not depend on the payment systems of card accounts.

The only requirement is to know the recipients card number. In addition to entering the recipients card number, the sender must indicate his own bank card number, its validity period and the CVV2 code - the last three digits. The number of payments is unlimited. However, in different countries there are limits on the amount of a single transfer. In Russian-speaking countries, the maximum transfer amount is on average $ 200. Transfer commission - 1%.

 

SecureCode

Convenient online MasterCard payment using a secret SecureCode is a relatively new, but very popular product in the financial services market. The method is absolutely safe, since it allows users to pay for purchases in the global network with credit and debit cards of the bank. Today more than 350 thousand online stores use effective SecureCode technology.

In order to find out if the store uses an innovative technology, you need to familiarize yourself with the payment information: services that support SecureCode install a logo on their portal. The principle of using the service is that during the transaction, the client enters the secret code in a special window. After the information is identified by the payment system, which takes a few seconds, the transaction is completed. This payment method is possible with any MasterCard and is absolutely safe.