According to some estimates, roughly 85% of the world's transactions are still done with cash or check! While countless industries will benefit as gobal consumers begin to ditch cash and opt for electronic payments, perhaps no company is better positioned than Visa (V 0.05%). Even though MasterCard (MA -0.08%) is often sited as being the smaller, more nimble competitor in the space, no company may ever catch up to the massive size of Visa's network and card distribution.

The question in all of this: Where should investors be putting their money for the next five or 10 years?

In this segment of The Motley Fool's financials-focused show, Where the Money Is, financial-sector analysts David Hanson and Matt Koppenheffer discuss the global opportunity for payments companies. The guys weigh the pros and cons of investing in Visa and MasterCard, but also Discover (DFS -2.60%), and American Express (AXP -0.84%).