Visa Debit

Visa Debit is a major debit card issued by Visa in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Prior to October 2004 the debit card was known as Visa Delta. The following major banks operating in the UK, issue debit cards under the Visa Debit scheme: Barclays Bank, Lloyds TSB, Abbey and Halifax Bank of Scotland who abandoned Switch due to a delay in chip and pin rollout. 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, Alliance & Leicester, Northern Rock, Nationwide and Coventry Building Society.

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.

ystem

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 50p 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.

Market competition

The competitors to Visa Debit in the UK debit card market are Maestro and Mastercard Debit. Maestro is issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest,Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank and HSBC. HSBC are planning to issue Visa Debit cards instead of Maestro from 2009. Royal Bank of Scotland have also announced that they will transition from Maestro to Visa Debit in 2009.Mastercard Debit cards will be issued by Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank from 2009. Maestro is an internationally accepted debit card although acceptance is narrower than Visa Debit, and not all cards work everywhere. The UK domestic debit card system is still run by Switch but branded Maestro. Some banking customers (especially those of Halifax Bank Of Scotland, which used to issue Switch cards) tend to refer to Visa Debit as Switch. However, Visa is more widely accepted in the UK and internationally as both Visa credit and debit cards use the Visa clearing system.

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).