A common misconception among consumers is that Mastercard and Visa are issuers of credit cards.  They are not.  Mastercard and Visa are payment processing networks.  The Mastercard and Visa credit cards in your wallet are issued by a wide range of banks.  Because of this, you can transfer balances from one Mastercard to another Mastercard or one Visa to another Visa.

The only problem you may run into occurs when you want to transfer balances between two Mastercards from the same issuing bank.  For example, you may have a Citi credit card with a 19% interest rate and want to do a Citibank balance transfer to a new card that offers a 0% APR for 15 months.  Although policies vary from bank to bank, it is unlikely that Citibank will permit you to transfer an existing high rate balance to a low rate balance transfer credit card. 

If you find yourself in this situation, you will want to contact your Mastercard issuer and ask about their balance transfer policy.  To be extra safe, ask them to put it in writing or send an email through your online account management platform so they have to respond in writing.  (This is a good approach with any important credit card question you have, as customer service representatives at many major companies have a tendency to be less than honest on the phone.)

Although you can do a Mastercard balance transfer to another Mastercard or a Visa balance transfer to another Visa, the same is usually not the case with Discover, as Discover is both an issuer of credit cards and a payment processor.  American Express is similar, though some banks, such as Bank of America, do offer American Express branded cards, so there is the possibility of transfers if you are moving a balance from an American Express issued credit card to one issued by Bank of America.

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