Visa Debit

Visa Debit is a major debit card issued by Visa in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and other nations of the European Union.Prior to October 2004, the debit card was known as Visa Delta. Since June 2009, the major banks in the UK have begun issuing Visa Debit. Barclays, Bank of Scotland/Halifax, Lloyds TSB, and Santander have already issued the card. HSBC, RBS (including NatWest and Ulster Bank) are currently in the process of migrating to the card from the Maestro debit 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. In October 2010, CIBC became the first bank in Canada to offer a debit card (the CIBC Advantage Card) that offers access for point of sale shopping internationally, over the internet or by mail or telephone orders using the Visa debit network. It also provides access to the Interac network for point of sale shopping in Canada.

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

he competitors to Visa Debit in the UK debit card market are Maestro and Debit MasterCard debit cards. Maestro is issued by Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank. Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank have also begun to issue Debit MasterCard.
In the Republic of Ireland, currently only Ulster Bank, Permanent tsb (and Halifax who are soon to withdraw from the Irish market) offer Visa Debit cards, whereas most other banks issue Laser or Maestro cards (often co-branded).

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).