Visa Debit

This article is about the former "Delta" debit card now issued under the VISA brand in the United Kingdom. For another VISA card in the UK, and in all countries except the United States, Canada and Australia, see Visa Electron. For VISA's other debit cards (including the V PAY in Europe, Visa Check Card in the U.S. and the Visa Debit Card in Japan), see debit card and Visa Inc.. Note that there are cards called Visa Debit (as opposed to just being debit cards under the Visa brand) in many countries.

File:Visa Logo.svg

Visa Debit logo

Visa Debit is a major debit card issued by Visa in the United Kingdom, Ireland and other European Union countries. Prior to October 2004 the debit card was known as Visa Delta. Since June 2009, all of the major banks in the UK have begun - or will in due course - issuing Visa Debit. Barclays, Abbey, Halifax/Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB have already issued the card. HSBC, RBS and NatWest are currently in the process of migrating to the card. The scheme is also used by many smaller banks and building societies (some of whom had also previously been Switch issuers) including the Co-operative Bank, First Trust Bank, Alliance & Leicester, Northern Rock, Reliance Bank, Nationwide and Coventry Building Society. Even though the product is available and advertised in Canada, at this point in time, no Visa-issuing financial institution offers a Visa Debit card product in Canada.

Card designs

The obverse and reverse of the cards are similar to a Visa credit card, including the “VISA” logotype and the dove hologram.

Previous designs

From the phase out of the Visa Delta branding until 2006, cards displayed the VISA tricolour flag trademark, with the addition of the words "DEBIT" or "DEBIT CARD". On the back, cards issued before October 2004 display the Delta logo, and usually also a cheque guarantee logo.

2006 redesign

In 2006, card issuers began removing the Visa trademark "flag" logo from all their cards, websites and retailers' windows. The flag had originated as the branding for the BankAmericard credit card programme, the forerunner of Visa, Inc. that included the UK's Barclaycard and French Carte Bleue.

For all Delta cards, the new logo was a white background with the name “VISA” in blue with an orange flick on the 'V' (illustrated). This is immediately followed by the word "Debit". This signalled a definite end of "Visa Delta" in those countries that used it.

The new logotype was also applied to other VISA operations, including credit cards and the VISA Electron electronic debit card.

System

The card can be used just like a Visa credit card both internationally and in the UK. Retailers in some countries can however accept the card as a debit card rather than a normal Visa card. In this case, the store is not charged a percentage, but rather a small fixed charge of around £0.50 per transaction. All transactions are in any case processed through the Visa clearing system, using the same card number, distinguishing it from other national debit card schemes which can be combined with Visa on a credit card. Customers might be charged a fee by their bank, for example, when buying foreign currency in the UK (up to 2%).

Market competition

The competitors to Visa Debit in the UK debit card market are Maestro and MasterCard debit cards. Maestro is issued by Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank. Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank have also begun to issue MasterCard Debit.

Visa and MasterCard debit cards are more widely accepted in the UK and internationally than Maestro, as both use either the Visa or MasterCard clearing systems for card payments. (LINK is used for domestic UK Debit Card ATM transactions).

History

Contrary to common belief, Visa Delta was the first debit card in the UK before Switch. Barclays introduced their "Connect" card (June 1987 - later rebranded Delta) shortly before NatWest released their "Switch" card (October 1988).