Visa Card

You know Visa. It's one of the big 3: Visa, Mastercard (cheaper to merchants), and Amex. Amex has a different deal with merchants...much more favorable to the cardholder, more benefits, better security analysis, better slogan ("priceless").

Banks tend to favor certain cards over others. For example, Bank of America is a huge issuer of Visa cards. Citi is a big issuer of Mastercard. You pay $100 for a nose piercing at the mall and pay with a Visa card; the merchant keeps $98 and Visa keeps $2, of which about 40 cents is spent clearing the card.

Nice high margin biz for your kindly, loving friends at the association of banks comprising Visa.