It is widely known that Warren Buffett, one of the greatest investors ever, loves dividend stocks. So it's not surprising that the company he leads, Berkshire Hathaway, has several excellent dividend stocks in its portfolio. Two of the best are Visa (NYSE: V) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA), the world's largest payment services companies. Let's find out why these businesses are solid options for investors interested in passive income whose favorite holding period -- like Buffett's -- is forever.

Few people think about what happens once they swipe their credit cards in a store. The process is pretty intricate. Visa and Mastercard form the backbone of it. Both companies operate payment networks that allow credit-card transactions to be approved (or rejected) by connecting the bank that issued the card with that of the merchant's.

Visa and Mastercard pocket a fee for every transaction they help to facilitate. These two juggernauts have no notable competitors aside from one another. They practically run a duopoly that would be extremely challenging to topple, thanks to the network effects both companies benefit from. Take Visa: As of last year, there were more than 4 billion cards in circulation that had its logo.

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Source Fool.com