These days, there are few people left who do not use bank cards. Plastic cards, invented in the middle of the last century, have not undergone many changes, but they still remain a very popular and convenient banking instrument. With their help, they pay in stores, transfer money to other accounts, accept payments, and, of course, withdraw cash through ATMs. But even the high level of competition among payment systems did not affect the popularity of Visa, and the company is a world leader.
Visa appeared on the financial market in 1958. The first cards were issued in the USA and were intended exclusively for lending to the public. In fact, in those years, the average American family had dozens of cards. Each financial institution issued a payment instrument to its own standards. All this caused a lot of inconvenience and confusion. After the merger of banks into a single system and the establishment of standards, and this happened in the mid-60s, the Visa card becomes the most popular in the United States.
But the international circulation of financial resources on a large scale started 20 years later. It was in the early 80s that a new instrument, Visa Electron, entered the market. During these years, ATMs are already operating around the world, and the electronic payment system is moving to a completely new level. Plastics, as it is customary to call plastic cards in common parlance, have become an indispensable attribute of the life of ordinary people.
Currently the Visa system consists of two companies. The first of these is Visa Inc., located in the United States and exercising control over the international financial market. The company also owns all rights to technological developments. The second company is Visa Europe Services Inc. located in Europe with headquarters in London. The division provides services to European banks.
In order to understand why Visa is so popular, it is enough to turn to statistics. Thus, 2 billion people (one third of the worlds population) use payment system cards. Millions of users are served within one hour. About 6,000 transactions are carried out in one minute. All this speaks of the trust in the service, which is caused by the following advantages:
Reliability.
Long term work.
The ability to use cards all over the world.
Simplicity of design.
The largest players in the financial market are two payment services: Visa and MasterCard. Recently, however, their hegemony has been violated by the China UnionPay system. Despite the emergence of a new giant, most cardholders do not even know why Visa is so popular, and what main advantage it has. However, even many bank employees are not ready to answer this question.
In fact, the payment instruments of both systems (Visa and MasterCard) have almost the same functionality. Separately, it should be noted that both payment services are American brands. At the same time, MasterCard focuses on serving the European client, and the main currency of the service is the euro. The main currency of the Visa payment system is the dollar, and geographically, it is more widespread, and almost twice. That is why it is Visa that is popular, because a transnational company provides customers with the most widespread payment acceptance network and more guarantees.
The company currently produces about 30 cards that offer different options for cardholders.
The main groups of payment instruments are the following cards:
Debit cards are the traditional means of making payments and are the most in demand. They are used to transfer money, receive pensions, salaries, and other transactions.
Credit cards. The payment instrument is intended for debt financing of the population. Visa is also the worlds most popular credit card company.
Prepaid cards represent a carrier of a certain value. These are cards intended to be used exclusively in certain areas, for example, for driving in transport or refueling a car. As a rule, cards are not named.
The initiator of issuing prepaid cards was also the VISA company, which in 2000 launched a joint project with the American Express payment system.
The simplest is the Visa Electron card, which is devoid of convex elements and has a minimum set of financial transactions. The most popular is Visa Classic, which is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Its demand is due to a standard set of functions, including the ability to use in an international format, as well as a low cost of service.
Gold, Platinum, Signature and Infinite cards have been developed for clients who are distinguished by high paying capacity. The last card has an unlimited limit.
For teenagers, the company has developed a Buxx card, which can be controlled by parents. Also, the popularity of Visa is confirmed by special key chains, disposable cards and other types of payment products.
In addition, several interesting facts from the world of payment cards can be noted:
The first cards were issued from plain paper. Today, high-quality plastic is used for their manufacture.
In some countries of the Middle East, bank cards are covered with gold.
The average card issuance price is $ 5. But there are elite payment instruments, for example, the Black Card (American Express Centurion), the cost of issuing which is $ 5,000.
The maximum payment that a cardholder can make in any country in the world without entering a pin code is $ 50.
Considering all the listed advantages, it becomes clear why Visa is so popular all over the world? Its main advantage lies not in the number of cards, but in the quality of services that are received by two billion customers.
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