Vantage can set up your business to reduce your discount
rates by establishing Debit card processing for your business.
We are registered with all regional and national debit
networks, so no matter where you or your customers are
located, we can handle your debit processing needs.
What are debit cards, and how do they differ from check
cards? Both directly access the cardholders bank account
to secure and hold the authorization amount against available
funds. The difference between them is that check cards
have the ability to be run through the credit card networks
or may access the debit networks at ATMs for withdrawing
cash. A pure debit card (without the Visa or MasterCard
logo) may only be used through the debit networks. This
means a debit card will work fine at Automated
Teller Machines for cash, but in order to be accepted at a merchant establishment,
the merchant must have debit service agreements in place
as well as PIN pad equipment hooked up to their credit
card system. It is the secret PIN that cardholders must
key into the system that proves their authorization of
the sale.
The difference between the credit and debit networks is
in their pricing to merchants. PIN debit works well for
merchants with a high average transaction. Also, industries
and business that have historically accepted a high volume
of checks are a great candidate for debit service.
We recommend that you analyze your debit card acceptance
carefully. Many bankcard companies view debit as just another
way to lease debit pin pads or lease entire systems (when
existing equipment a merchant may own would work just fine).
Carefully consider the numbers used to calculate estimated
savings to make a case for converting check cards to debit
transactions by adding a PIN pad. |
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Growth in both Signature and PIN debit markets.
- The Nilson Report expects debit card transactions at
the POS to grow at a rate more than two-and-a-half times
that
of credit card transactions. By 2012, the Nilson Report
predicts, debit transaction volume will actually exceed
the volume of credit card transactions.
- Visa
U.S.A. announced,
for the first half of 2002, signature-based debit transactions
initiated with Visa check cards actually
exceeded the number of purchases initiated with Visa
credit cards (3.04 billion purchases vs. 2.96 billion
purchases)
- even though Visa credit cards actually outnumber
Visa debit cards two-to-one.
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