User 169775

Credit Cards Are Feeling the Crunch

The Beijing Olympics start in a week. Visa is getting HUGE exposure in Chinese media because of it, and they are on an intense drive to sign up new cardholders there right now. In a country of 1.3 billion people, 50% of whom live in cities.

Now THERE is a growth opportunity if there ever is one!

That's why I'm long on Visa ever since I got in at $56 / share.

They need to hold an Olympic games in India! (another billion people there!)

Visa and Mastercard: The Mortgage Brokers of the Credit Card Industry

I bought into V and MA precisely because of the recession in the U.S.-- V and MA both do business in plenty of countries where the economy isn't anywhere as bad as the U.S. Half of V's revenue comes from overseas, by the way.

Mastercard, Visa: Q1 Earnings May Be Fine, But Guidance Will Be Weak

Latest retail reports say that in-store sales are down, but internet sales are UP. That's good news for V and MA, because credit cards are THE preferred method of payment for internet purchases.

Visa, Mastercard Risk Ramped Up Competition

Just how big a risk is litigation, really?

Microsoft has been sued continuously for the past 15 years for anticompetitive practices everywhere in the world. They are still here and still profitable.

Mastercard faces many of the same litigation Visa is undergoing, and that has not prevented its equity from rising 400%.

It seems to me all you need is a team of lawyers who know how to obfuscate and drag things out, which every multinational corporation has legions of on retainer.

Credit Cards by Country

To the guy who posted the first comment:

Vast majority of people in China and India are subsistance farmers?

Sorry dude, you must be living in the 1980s. Ever wonder why almost everything you see on Walmart's shelves is labeled "Made in China"?

The chief economic engine driving China today is manufacturing, not subsistence farming, which is why the latest UN population report says 40% of China's population live in urban areas.

Visa stands to get a huge market share boost during the Beijing Olympics this year-- They are the exclusive payment system for the Olympics (sorry, they don't take Mastercard or American Express), and Visa's commercials and branding will be flooding Chinese TVs this summer.

Maybe that's why Visa chose to go public during these troubled times.