VISA electron

The Visa Electron card* is issued in certain countries around the world. The Electron card provides consumers with direct access to deposit account funds, but the card’s security features and acceptance procedures are slightly different.
• First, the account number on the front of an Electron card is printed, not embossed.
• The full 16-digit account number may not be present on the front of the card. At the discretion of the card issuer, Electron cards may bear only the first and last four digits of the account number.
• At the discretion of the card issuer, Electron cards may be used for mail order, telephone order, or Internet purchases, or for cash advances or any other type of cash disbursement, or they may be restricted from any or all these functions.
• Electronic authorization is required for all Electron card transactions. This means you must be able to perform the authorization by swiping the stripe through a point-of-sale terminal, inserting the chip card into the chip-reading device, or waving the card in front of a Visa payWave terminal. Key-entered authorizations are not allowed. If the magnetic stripe is damaged or cannot be read by the terminal, the card cannot be used.

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paywave works

1. Merchant terminal is enabled with contactless technology.
2. Consumer holds card in front of the reader and terminal light indicates card has been read.
3. Transaction is completed like any card payment.

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What is Visa payWave?

Merchants can take advantage of increased speed and convenience—and offer
these advantages to cardholders—with Visa payWave, a new payment method
that uses the latest technology to send card data wirelessly to a terminal reader.
A cardholder simply holds their card in front of the reader.
For many transactions, there is no need to sign a receipt or hand over the card.
Visa payWave provides merchants and consumers with a number of benefits.

Merchant Benefits
Cost Savings/Efficiency
• Decreased transaction time.
• Customer initiates the transaction by simply holding the card in front of the
reader rather than swiping or handing the card to the clerk.
• Reduction in coin/cash handling.
Customer Loyalty
• Attracts new customers and builds loyalty with added speed and
convenience.
Competitive Advantage
• Sets merchants apart from their competitors in categories like fast food
restaurants where speed and convenience are compelling benefits.

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Visa Card Features and Security Elements

Every Visa card contains a set of unique design features and security elements developed by Visa to help merchants verify a card’s legitimacy. By knowing what to look for on a Visa card, your sales associates can avoid inadvertently accepting a counterfeit card or processing a fraudulent transaction.
Train your sales staff to take a few seconds to look at the card’s basic features and security elements after they have swiped the card and are waiting for authorization. Checking card features and security elements helps to ensure that the card is valid and has not been altered in any way.

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Parties to Visa Transactions

A cardholder :  is an authorized user of Visa payment cards or other Visa payment
products.
A merchant : is any business entity that is authorized to accept Visa cards for the
payment of goods and services.
An acquirer : is a financial institution that contracts with merchants to accept
Visa cards for payment of good and services. An acquirer may also contract with
third party processors to provide processing services.
A card issuer : is a financial institution that maintains the Visa cardholder
relationship. It issues Visa cards and contracts with its cardholders for billing
and payment of transactions.
Visa Inc. : is a publicly-traded corporation that works with financial institutions
that issue Visa cards (card issuers) and/or sign merchants to accept Visa cards
for payment of goods and services (acquirers). Visa provides card products,
promotes the Visa brand, and establishes the rules and regulations governing
participation in Visa programs. Visa also operates the world’s largest retail
electronic payments network to facilitate the flow of transactions between
acquirers and card issuers.
VisaNet® is part of Visa’s retail electronic payment system. It is a collection of
systems that includes:
• An authorization service through which card issuers can approve or decline
individual Visa card transactions.
• A clearing and settlement service that processes transactions electronically
between acquirers and card issuers to ensure that:
          – Visa transaction information moves from acquirers to card issuers for
             posting to cardholders’ accounts.
          – Payment for Visa transactions moves from card issuers to acquirers to be
             credited to the merchant accounts.

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Security Features Of Visa Card

What to Look for on all Visa Cards

• The Signature panel : must appear on the back of the card and contain an ultraviolet element that repeats the word “Visa®.” The panel will look like this one, or have a custom design. It may vary in length. The words “Authorized Signature” and “Not Valid Unless Signed” must appear above, below, or beside the signature panel. If someone has tried to erase the signature panel, the word ‘VOID” will be displayed.
• The Magnetic stripe : is encoded with the card’s identifying information.
• Card security code:  or Card Verification Value (CVV) is a unique threedigit code that is encoded on the magnetic stripe of all valid cards. CVV is used to detect a counterfeit card.
• Hologram: The Mini-Dove Design Hologram may appear on the back anywhere within the outlined areas shown . The three-dimensional dove hologram should appear to move as you tilt the card.
• Brand mark : must appear in blue and gold on a white background in either the bottom right, top left, or top right corner.
• Account number : The account numbers of all Visa, MasterCard and Discover cards are comprised of 16 digits and for American Express the number is made up of 15 digits. All digits must appear even, straight, and the same size. The first digit of each card number identifies its type. Listed below are the first digits that the major U.S. card brands use in their account numbers.
  

  Card Type	First Digit of Account Number
  American Express	3
  Visa	4
  MasterCard	5
  Discover	6




• Bank Identification Number (BIN) (only for Visa and MasterCard cards): These are four-digit numbers that are printed below the account number. This BIN must be identical with the first four digits of the account number.
• Expiration date: or “Good Thru” date should appear below the account number.
• Cardholder name:   or a Generic Title may be embossed or printed on the card. This field may be blank on some Visa cards.

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