Historically, tumultuous times offer some of the best opportunities to buy cheap stocks, and the market's recent mess surely qualifies. Even with all the volatility in consumer credit, many investors think credit transaction facilitator Visa (NYSE: V) is one of them.

In our Motley Fool CAPScommunity, nearly 94% of the 4,392 investors rating the company are bullish, so there's no shortage of reasons why Visa will thrive, three of which I've highlighted below.

But here at The Motley Fool, we're all for looking at both the good and the bad sides of an investment. Once you're done with this article, you can read the case against Visa, weigh in with your own comments, or rate Visa yourself in CAPS.

1. Better economic days ahead
Many investors believe Visa is in a strong position to benefit from a recovering economy. Similar to MasterCard (NYSE: MA), Visa recently said it's starting to see signs of stabilization. Visa's U.S. transaction volume fell less in August than it did in July, which bodes well for improving conditions going forward. While credit transactions are still soft, consumers are making up for it with increased debit transactions. However, Visa's global transaction volume actually increased by 9% in August, above July's 8% gain.

2. No baggage
Unlike Discover (NYSE: DFS), American Express (NYSE: AXP), or Capital One (NYSE: COF), which extend credit to their cardholders, Visa and MasterCard don't bear the same burdens. They limit their risk to collecting transaction fees when consumers make a purchase on Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) or swipe their card at Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT), which limits their downside in a turbulent economy. And when things eventually do get better, Visa can focus on growth, rather than hassle with cleaning up a troubled balance sheet.

3. Increasing use of debit cards
In addition to being the top worldwide name and brandin credit card transactions, Visa is seeing rapid growth in the use of debit cards displaying its logo. The dollar volume on its debit payments surpassed that of credit transactions early this year for the first time in company history and have picked up in recent months. And Visa sees big opportunity ahead in developing countries, where many consumers still have yet to convert to plastic from cash and checks.  

To see details of what CAPS members are saying nowabout Visa, just click on over to Motley Fool CAPSand have a look -- or add your own thoughts directly to this story in the comments box below.

This article was originally published as 3 Reasons to Buy Visa Todayon Fool.com

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