VISA credit cards are the largest credit card processing company in the world, with almost 30 million outlets in almost every single country that accept VISA cards.
VISA started as the Bank of America card in the 1950s. In America from the 1920s consumer credit was becoming more common and in California it was even becoming quite common to have revolving lines of credit with a number of shops. A number of banks decided that it would be a good idea to get into this market and a number of attempts were made.
Bank of America, despite its name, was a San Francisco based bank that had branches through out California. It was one of the biggest banks in California. It was one of the banks that decided to develop a revolving consumer account of its own.
Bank of America decided to start offering its card in Pasadena in California. This was for two specific reasons, firstly it had a very large market share in this city and secondly the city was relatively isolated and so if the project failed then there would be less reputational risk. The way in which the card was offered was that a large proportion of the Pasadena customers were pre-approved for credit cards and were sent unsolicited credit cards. At that time was the largest single direct mail marketing shot in history. This has been a tactic that has been used many other times since, particularly when the Bank Card – Australia’s first credit card – was introduced.
The Bank of America card was a success, and forced a number of other large Californian banks, including Crocker National Bank, to set up a rival card which eventually became MasterCard. The Bank of America card expanded during the 1960s and became VISA in 1979. It also started to be offered by many other credit card companies both in America and overseas, including in Australia.
VISA was by this time a co-operative of a number of providers. It had become through organic growth and by merger a genuine worldwide presence and was the largest credit card provider in the world with the most accounts and the most vendors. In 2008 it floated on the New York Stock Exchange.
VISA does not offer any credit cards directly, but banks offer them. VISA simply processes the payments, ensuring that a customer who banks with one bank can pay a shop keeper who banks with another bank.
