Many people are rightly confused whether it is possible to transfer credit card balances from one Visa card to another (or, for that matter, one MasterCard to another). The short answer to the question is yes. You may have a Visa, a MasterCard, a Discover and an American Express in your wallet or purse right now. You may even have more than one Visa or MasterCard. How is that possible? The answer lies in understanding how credit card networks work.
Credit card networks are corporations that own the intellectual property associated with their respective cards and work with banks to issue them to the public. While these companies originally issued the cards as well, in recent times their role has become more regulatory. Some card networks, such as Discover and JCB, still issue their cards as well as regulate them. Others, such as Visa and MasterCard, do not issue cards, leaving the job to independent financial institutions associated with them. American Express both issues cards on its own and employs independent issuing banks.
The important thing to remember is neither Visa nor MasterCard issue credit cards directly and haven’t for many years. Instead, their member financial institutions (known as “issuing banks”) do it for them. As a result, it is possible for one individual to be the primary cardholder for many Visas and MasterCards at the same time.
When seeking a credit card for balance transfers, many people mistakenly think that they cannot transfer balances from one Visa card to another. Such is not the case. You cannot transfer a balance from a Chase Visa card to another Chase Visa card with a 0% interest rate. (You also can’t transfer a balance from Chase Visa to a Chase MasterCard to get a 0% promotional rate.) However, you can transfer a balance from a Chase Visa to a Citibank or Bank of America Visa. When it comes to balance transfers, the issue is not Visa or MasterCard. Its transferring from one bank to another.
The exceptions to the 0% balance transfer rule are American Express and Discover. Since they both issue credit cards and process them, unless they offer you the opportunity to transfer balances from one account to another, you will likely be unable to transfer balances from one Discover or American Express card to another.
So how many Visas and MasterCards can you have? Theoretically that is only limited by the number of banks that will accept your application.
-Jennifer Davide
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