It's even worse than that. Not only can MasterCard arbitrarily refuse to accept payments for a business, it can cancel any consumer's account with little recourse. Let's say that someone steals my credit card number and uses it in a foreign country, and MasterCard detects this fraudulent use of my card and shuts down my account. At that point, if I can't buy food and other essentials with cash, I'd be in real trouble. Also, it's hard to get a credit or debit card if you're unemployed - if you have no income and/or no credit history, credit card companies and banks don't really want to do business with you. And if you're homeless and begging for money on the street, nobody is going to lend you their credit card.
Since the banks issue cards on behalf of MasterCard, they essentially constitute a single, tightly-coupled system from the point of view of the consumer. And the problems I described exist no matter which part of this system manages the end-users' accounts.
that's incorrect. in practice, MasterCard cannot do any of the things you suggest, aside from "arbitrarily refuse to accept payments for a business", which they have already done. your bank could shut down your card due to fraud, which may suck for you, but you can switch banks if you disagree with them. unemployed people can absolutely get visa/mastercard debit cards. ditto homeless people.
mastercard deserves criticism, but try to actually stick to things under their control (e.g. their appalling but now discontinued ban on wikileaks donations).
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It's even worse than that. Not only can MasterCard arbitrarily refuse to accept payments for a business, it can cancel any consumer's account with little recourse. Let's say that someone steals my credit card number and uses it in a foreign country, and MasterCard detects this fraudulent use of my card and shuts down my account. At that point, if I can't buy food and other essentials with cash, I'd be in real trouble. Also, it's hard to get a credit or debit card if you're unemployed - if you have no income and/or no credit history, credit card companies and banks don't really want to do business with you. And if you're homeless and begging for money on the street, nobody is going to lend you their credit card.
Of course you'd have to get a debit card - just with zero credit.
all of your consumer-side complaints are about banks not MasterCard.
Since the banks issue cards on behalf of MasterCard, they essentially constitute a single, tightly-coupled system from the point of view of the consumer. And the problems I described exist no matter which part of this system manages the end-users' accounts.
that's incorrect. in practice, MasterCard cannot do any of the things you suggest, aside from "arbitrarily refuse to accept payments for a business", which they have already done. your bank could shut down your card due to fraud, which may suck for you, but you can switch banks if you disagree with them. unemployed people can absolutely get visa/mastercard debit cards. ditto homeless people.
mastercard deserves criticism, but try to actually stick to things under their control (e.g. their appalling but now discontinued ban on wikileaks donations).