Visa International yesterday celebrated its national issuing of 2 million debit cards, vowing to top the 3 million mark by the year-end with the help of more TV commercials and preferential programs.
As the new payment tool -- which combines the debit and cash-withdrawal functions on one card -- only started to get substantial media exposure since last July.
Visa acknowledged that more effort is needed to give consumers a better understanding of the product and increase the activation rate.
Christopher Clark, Visa's country manager in Taiwan, said cardholders who used Visa debit cards to make payments exceeded more than US$200 million last year, more than double the volume recorded in 2003.
"We'll have to further educate consumers and let them know it's a good and useful payment tool," Clark said.
According to Visa's data, payments made on the debit cards account for 37 percent of the world's retail transactions, which shows the potential of this product has in Taiwan, Clark said.
Debit card payments are deducted from a consumer's bank account. This should be a favorable financial tool for those who are unqualified for, or dislike the risk of, credit cards, said Chen Yi-fen (
Taipei Fubon Bank will become Visa's tenth member bank to issue debit cards next month, with a goal of 900,000 cards within two years, Chen said.
Two other major players, Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託) and Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), have issued 1.6 million and 150,000 debit cards, respectively.
However, the difficulty of changing people's consumption behavior might cost Visa more than it has anticipated.
"Taiwanese people have used credit cards for 20 years and they are accustomed to enjoying [products] first and paying later," said Julie Yang (楊雅婷), sales and business senior director at MasterCard International.
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