BANKING

Visa, Sprint Team Up for Discount: Visa International stepped up its battle with MasterCard International on Wednesday by offering a new service with Sprint that lets users charge long-distance calls at a deep discount. The Visa-Sprint alliance puts one more contender into an industry already crowded with programs offering discounts for calls charged to their cards. The Visa card’s new feature, VisaPhone, ups the ante by offering a discount 25% cheaper than the calling card rate offered by AT&T;, the biggest long-distance carrier. AT&T; has been in a competitive brawl with Sprint and MCI. With VisaPhone, even users of AT&T;’s own Visa card, the Universal Card, could receive the Sprint discount.