What is Visa ?

Visa cards are among the most popular means of payment that are more widespread and accepted around the world. There have seen about 230 million Visa cards issued by banks and financial institutions in Europe alone, and around a billion worldwide and they continue to grow at a rate of more than 2,000 new cards issued each hour, of every single day.

Visa cards can be used to pay for goods and services at 20 million points of acceptance in the world, and to withdraw cash from 850,000 ATMs. The largest European market is the United Kingdom with 77.6 million Visa cards. Spain follows with 33.8 million, France with 25, Turkey with 22.5, Italy 14, Portugal with 11.1 and Germany with 11.2.

The entire system that allows card holders to carry out payment transactions in seconds almost anywhere around the globe was achieved in less than two decades. Bank of America in 1958 launched the world's first credit card, whose use was limited to California.

In 1970 the National Bankamericard Corporation (NABANCO), brought together Bank of America and other banks issuing credit cards on its license to provide various services to members, including the authorization, clearing of funds and fraud control.

In 1974 an international organization was founded, the International Bankamericard Corporation (IBANCO), to create and support a worldwide program of bank cards. It was simultaneously launched in the United States and 15 other countries, the cards from Bankamericard were blue, white and gold.

In 1977 NABANCO became Visa USA and IBANCO changed its name to Visa International and the financial institutions members began to issue the first ever Visa cards.

Today Visa International is an association that brings together more than 21,000 banks and financial institutions worldwide, and provides products and services covered by one of the most well-known and recognized brands in the world.

Visa provides global platforms, systems and data processing services to the members in order to maintain customer satisfaction, security and profitably in the business of credit cards.

Visa does not issue cards and does not deal with the agreements of its operators. These functions are carried out by financial institutions who are members of Visa and who determine the conditions applied to card holders and merchants, such as the amount of fees, interest rates on outstanding balances, spending limits and conditions of use of the cards issued.

History of American Express Cards

For many credit card holders the ultimate prestige card to have is the classic American Express card. The American Express card indicates a certain level of income and financial responsibility. For those fortunate enough to already carry the American Express card the next step is the Black version of the status conscious credit card reputedly once used to purchase a $30 million Lear jet with just one swipe of the card.

The American Express Company often abbreviated as "Amex" or "Amexco" is a financial services company with its U.S. headquarters in the New York borough of Manhattan.

American Express is a diversified company that operates in financial services and travel. America Express is generally considered to be world leader in several areas such as debit cards and other forms of credit. As well as Travellers Cheques, Travel, Financial Services and Investments, asset management and insurance.

It started life by entering into competition with the postal service of the United States. Payment orders moved quickly allowing immigrants freshly arrived in the country to send mail to Europe beginning in 1891.

Marcellus Berry invented the new American Express Travellers Check, the first prepaid instrument in history. This product makes the company truly international to the point that in 1915 they decided to enter the field of travel with their first agency.

During the First World War the company is among the few that continued to operate in Europe ensuring the payment system and showing great reliability at international level.

American Express created its first credit card in 1958 and is now mostly recognise for its distinctive credit card design. Requests for 250,000 cards were already received well before the official launch. The first credit cards were made from cardboard and purple in colour.

In 1959 the company began issuing the now familiar plastic cards. The range of products offered to customers has been expanding over the years. In 1966 day created the Charter Gold card, in 1984 it introduced the Platinum Card. In 1999 it was the turn of American Express Blue, a card offering revolving credit similar to the Visa and MasterCard credit cards.

The same year they launched the exclusive Centurion Card, also known as the "black card" designed for a selected range of customers.  In 2005, they introduced in the U.S. ExpressPay that, thanks to a system of radio frequency identification (RFID), allows quick payments simply by waving the card in front of a special card reader, this is known as contactless transactions.