It’s official: winter holiday bills are here, and Valentine’s Day bills are on the way – and your credit card bill is likely shocking (am I the only one?, I doubt it). Last week, we discussed discount shopping, but now it’s time to cut back until the next wave of expenses hits with Spring Break. And what better subject to explore than that little universal piece of plastic? Personally, I rarely carry cash and depend entirely on my credit card, which fits nicely in the back of my new iPhone case. So, I checked the NetBase Insight Workbench to find out what social media is saying about these five credit cards: Discover Card, American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard, and Visa.

I wasn’t surprised to see that Visa, MasterCard, and American Express were the top buzz winners here – but I found it interesting to note the differences in the other metrics among the three. Visa came out on top in all three metrics with 43.7% of the overall buzz, the highest Passion Intensity of 58 (though there isn’t much passion for the category overall), and the highest Net Sentiment score of 73. MasterCard had the lowest buzz volume among the top three, with 22% of the conversation, but was close behind Visa with a Passion Intensity of 54 and a Net Sentiment of 70. American Express ranked second with a buzz share of 31%, but had the second lowest Passion Intensity at 41, and had the lowest Net Sentiment at 65. Check out the chart below to see the competitive landscape.

In this graphic, the amount of chatter about a brand is indicated by the size of the bubble, while the placement of the bubble shows the sentiment and intensity of passion.

Verbatim surfaced about Visa showed that it has the competitive edge with online consumers because of its versatility: there seems to be a Visa card for all types of consumers. Social media chatter extolled the virtues of the card for those developing their credit score, rebuilding their credit score, and those who travel extensively and want to rack up the miles or rewards (guilty as charged for me on the last one).

The Visa Black Card is the world’s most prestigious and versatile credit card today!

The Used Lender Secured Visa is the best card if you are developing or rebuilding your credit score

For frequent fliers, The Chase United MileagePlus Explorer card offered by Visa is by far the best card available

The Justice FCU Visa Platinum Rewards credit card offers an impressive rate AND big rewards

Visa debit is the safest option in the current financial times

I was interested to delve into the MasterCard data to see why it is that the brand is lagging behind Visa. Turns out that it’s everything from their advertising to difficulties using the card online, to higher fees.

The peelaway World MasterCard ad that opens on every page of TT is the PITS! It’s driving me crazy.

This is what happened, mastercard useless securecode didn’t work, and I had to leave my credit info through email

I have Deutsche Bank Gold Mastercard, which is a bit expensive

Verbatim about American Express showed that while it clearly has generated a lot of buzz , problems still remain – largely due to its seemingly unnecessary red tape and the inconveniences it causes its customers.

There are places in the world where Visa and MasterCard are accepted widely but American Express is more difficult to use.

Amex Credit Cards are hard to get approved

American Express is harder on rating customers for their Credit Card

It was much much more difficult to accumulate points with the American Express card, well, because it’s not accepted everywhere.

So who is your plastic of choice? Let me know what your gripes (or your raves!) are for your card!