Visa Debit
Visa Debit is a brand of debit card issued by Visa in many countries. Numerous banks and financial institutions issue Visa Debit cards to their customers for access to their bank accounts. In many countries the Visa Debit functionality is often incorporated on the same plastic card that allows access to ATM and any domestic networks like EFTPOS or Interac.
Overview
Visa Debit is a brand of debit card issued by Visa in many countries. Numerous banks and financial institutions issue Visa Debit cards to their customers for access to their bank accounts. In many countries the Visa Debit functionality is often incorporated on the same plastic card that allows access to ATM and any domestic networks like EFTPOS or Interac.
Usage
In many countries the Visa Debit functionality has been added to payment cards, to allow customers to use the card for payments on the internet, point of sale transactions and access to ATMs.
Australia
Bendigo Bank issued the first Visa Debit card in 1982, more than two decades before Debit Mastercard, or widespread Visa Debit use in Australia. Today it is in wide issuance, and domestically switches over local networks, though for new banks, connection to Visa is permitted.
Canada
In Canada, virtually all domestic debit card transactions are processed over the Interac network, though several financial institutions have also permitted PIN-based ATM transactions internationally over the Visa-owned Plus Network. However, Interac's dominance has left little room for alternative debit networks such as Visa or Mastercard to be used for domestic transactions. Several Canadian financial institutions that primarily offer credit cards through the Visa network – including CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank, and TD – currently offer Visa Debit, either through a dual-network co-badged card which also works on Interac (CIBC, Scotia and TD), or as a "virtual" card used alongside the customer's existing Interac debit card (RBC). Both options ensure customers can perform point-of-sale transactions or ATM withdrawals as usual via Interac, but use the Visa network to process online, phone, and international transactions, none of which are well-supported by Interac. (The latter did have its own online payment service, Interac Online, which co-badged Visa cards were not eligible for. Interac Online was discontinued on October 31, 2024.) For the dual-network cards, in-person transactions within Canada are processed on the Interac network, but international transactions, as well as online and phone orders through Canadian retailers, are processed through the Visa network. (However, Canadian retailers must specifically allow for Visa Debit transactions, even if they already accept Visa credit cards.) "Virtual Visa Debit" works similarly; customers use their existing Interac debit cards for in-person transactions (and Interac Online) in Canada, but are also provided with a secondary "virtual" Visa card (i.e. card number, expiry, and CVV2) which can be used for online and phone transactions (but not point-of-sale, in Canada or internationally). Although Visa floated the prospect of competing directly with Interac in regards to point-of-sale transactions in 2009, there has been no indication since 2010 that it is continuing to pursue this option.
Germany
Germany's banking industry strongly favours its domestic girocard scheme that can be co-badged with Maestro or V-Pay for many years already, but only from recently also with the more powerful Debit Mastercard (since 2020) or Visa Debit (since 2023).
Greece
In Greece, Piraeus Bank and Alpha Bank offer Visa Debit cards to their customers as an option, having updated from the Visa Electron cards that they used to offer.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, banks such as Bank Mandiri, Bank Syariah Indonesia, and Bank Jago offer Visa Debit cards to their customers alongside national debit card under Gerbang Pembayaran Nasional (GPN; National Payment Gateway) network. Visa Debit competes with Debit Mastercard for international debit card networks.
Ireland
Many Irish banks, such as Permanent TSB, are now issuing Visa Debit cards to their current account customers as the domestic Laser scheme, usually co-badged with Maestro, was abandoned in the early 2010s.
Israel
In Israel, Visa Debit only launched in April 2015, and is only offered to Bank Leumi customers via its subsidiary Leumi Card, now MAX. The bank used to issue debit cards under the Visa Electron brand prior to losing its controlling interest at ICC Also Known As Cal credit company on 2000.
Italy
In Italy the first Visa Debit branded card was issued by FinecoBank as their default option for debit cards, starting from 2016. All new customers cards (and cards due to renewal) will be replaced by a Visa Debit card co-badged with the national Bancomat network.
Netherlands
Banks offer Maestro and V Pay debit cards, but no Visa Debit cards. Visa has announced that Rabobank will start offering Visa Debit cards from mid-2022. ING has also announced it will issue Visa Debit cards, which will be gradually introduced as their current stock of V-PAY and Maestro cards is depleted. The widespread rollout of these Visa Debit cards is expected to begin in 2025.
Philippines
In the Philippines, major banks like BDO, Unionbank, Landbank, EastWest Bank, UCPB and DBP are the major issuers of Visa Debit. All of the three major state-owned banks issue Visa debit cards as well their subsidiaries like the Overseas Filipino Bank. Most Visa Debit cards are connected to the national interbank network BancNet and is the primary network for most over-the-counter transaction.
Wikipedia contributors · Visa Debit · revision 1358317567 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Plain text extracted and formatting adapted; tags derived from linked topics.