Visa Debit
Visa Debit is one of the major brand names in the world of personal financial transactions. Visa Debit cards are issued in countries all over the world, by banks and other institutions. Visa Debit cards allow customers to pay for retail items and services both in real-world stores and online, with the money for such products and services being drawn directly from their bank accounts. Payments can be refused if there are insufficient funds in the debit card user's account at the point of sale.
Visa Debit cards are usually multipurpose cards in that they allow users to withdraw funds from any ATM that bears the Visa logo as well as being used as a debit card.
Visa Debit history
Visa as a company was found in Fresno, California in 1958, as BankAmericard, part of Bank of America. To begin operations, the company mailed out 60,000 unsolicited credit cards, and by 1960 had saturated California with over two million cards. This turned out to be something of a disaster, as no less than 22 percent of the cards ended up being used fraudulently, costing Bank of America $20 million. In 1975 Bank of America allowed other banks to enter the BankAmericard scheme, under the new umbrella name "Visa". The word Visa was chosen as its a recognised word in many languages with a common definition.
Debit cards were not issued in the UK until 1987. The first Visa debit card was issued by Barclays Bank in June that year, as what was known as a "Connect" card. The National Westminster Bank followed suit a year later with the "Switch" card. Both cards were eventually merged under the Visa brand name.
For around a decade Visa Debit cards in the UK were known as "Visa Delta" cards. This branding was phased out in 1998, when all debit cards issued under the Visa brand name became referred to as Visa Debit cards.
In the United States, the uptake of Visa Debit cards was somewhat slower, with most merchant and businesses preferring to remain with the traditional cash or check system. Uptake of Visa Debit cards began to accelerate with the advent of chip and pin devices, which offer a more convenient and secure way of making payments for goods and services than checks.
Visa Debit today
Visa today has a net income of over $2.1 billion, and assets worth $40 billion.
Visa Debit cards remain the most popular debit cards in the world, with the Mastercard Maestro/Cirrus/debit card being their only serious rival. In Europe alone, there are an estimated 460 million Visa debit cards in circulation, and purchases made annually using Visa debit cards in Europe total around €1.8 trillion.
In the USA, around 430 million Visa Debit cards have now been issued, with an estimate annual spend of $1.1 trillion over nearly 30 billion transactions. Despite this, debit cards in the US only account for 2 to 3 percent of all non-cash transactions within the country in a year. Checks still contribute around 33 percent, and ACH (automated clearing house) transactions around 60 percent. The average debit card user in the US spends around $8,500 on debit cards transactions per year.
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