The economic sector of the credit cards is in the center of the curiosity of several authorities of competition or regulation in various countries; it is not by chance. It is an industry of network based on markets double-faced cloth; two of its protagonists - Visa and MasterCard - are associations of banks, themselves the result of joint-ventures, which distribute the charts to the carriers and propose services with the tradesmen who accept these charts.
The charts are manufactured by card winders, such as for example Oberthur, Sagem, Gemplus, Axalto (ex Schlumberger), Gemalto, ASK - RFID…
The bank card is characterized by a BIN (Bank Identification Number) which makes it possible to identify the establishment transmitting chart.
Credit Card accepts various options with the choice of the carrier:
- immediate flow: charge on the bank account by the bank of the carrier from day to day;
- differed flow: the account of the carrier is output periodically on fixed date, even mobile like the last working day of the month;
The management of the flow is however not a property of the support as such: it is about one of the methods of the contract signed between the carrier and the transmitting organization.
A credit card is a type of means of payment in the form of chart plastic, equipped with a magnetic band and/or electronic chip (see smart card), who allows:
- the payment of purchases and performances of service, near suppliers having a “terminal of payment” (replacing the old “domestic iron”) which can read the chart and connected or not to its bank or in an automatic distribution system;
- withdrawals of species to the automatic teller machines;
- home-bankings Internet, etc
Its acceptance implies that the global area network with which the chart is associated is accepted by the electronic payment terminal (TPE) of the tradesman. The most known global area networks are VISA, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Diners.