Mastercard (NYSE: MA) has a roughly 0.6% dividend yield today. Visa's (NYSE: V) yield is only slightly higher at about 0.8% or so. While those figures probably won't appeal to many dividend investors, this one will: Both of these payment processors have mid-teen annualized percentage dividend growth rates over the past decade. In other words, they are dividend growth stocks with impressive dividend histories. Here's why you'll want them on your wish list for the next big market sell-off.

Visa and Mastercard are the No. 1 and No. 2 payment processors, respectively. That basically means that consumers use their cards (you probably know their logos well) to buy things. Visa and Mastercard make sure that the transactions are taken care of using their proprietary computer networks, working with the merchant and the banks to get everyone credited and debited appropriately. It sounds simple, but it really isn't, due to increasing issues around fraud and reliability.

What both companies offer is a service, and for that service, they charge a fee. They basically collect a small percentage of every transaction they handle. However, given the number of transactions that use cards adorned with their logos, the small fees add up to huge revenue. More and more transactions are being done across their networks as customers shift away from cash or buy in places where cash just isn't an option (online shopping, for example).

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Source Fool.com