January 31, 2007

What is an Offline Debit Card?

An offline debit card is something like the best of both worlds between ATM cards and credit cards. You may have one and not even know it – because you call it a “Visa Check Card” or “Mastercard Check Card.”

An offline debit card has a Visa or MasterCard logo, but doesn’t have a line of credit attached to it. Transactions made on these cards are debited to a customer’s bank account. When you are asked “credit or debit?” and can answer, “either,” you have this kind of card. It is called “offline,” because the account cannot be directly accessed at the point of sale like a debit transaction – there is a delay of 24-72 hours before the transaction hits the account. Offline debit cards are attractive to consumers because they access ready money via a bank account, but carry all the access of a credit card, such as online and phone payments.

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