Visa International sees rising credit card usage

Payment processing card company Visa International sees a turnaround of the payment behavior among Filipinos in the next few years, as card usage has grown significantly in the country, from being a widely cash consumer base.

Apart from credit card, Visa International is anchoring its growth on the debit and pre-paid card services, wherein prepaid feature can tap the 51 percent or 31 million Filipinos that have no bank deposits, or no banking relationships.

In a press conference yesterday, Visa International (Philippines) country manager James Dixon said the card usage in the Philippines is expected to grow in the varied market segments, as the payment behavior of Filipinos has changed, and availability of different forms of payment access have been and will be introduced.

In the Philippines, 75 percent of Visa's total business is transacted via prepaid, and debit card services, only 25 percent of which are credit card transactions.

Because of this development, the company reported a 25.9 percent growth in card sales volume in the first six months of this year, from P82.6 billion in 2005, P103.9 billion this year.

This figure includes all transactions made through the Visa network, including payments by credit and debit cards, cash advances and ATM withdrawals.

Retail sales volume, which represents payments made through Visa cards at merchant point-of-sale terminals and over the Internet, grew by 21.1 percent to P42.9 billion. Visa credit cardholders continued to account for the majority of the retail transactions with a volume of P42 billion, a 21.2 percent increase. Meanwhile, Visa Debit continued its steady growth with a 17.6 percent increase with over P839 million in retail sales.

"Value-adding promotional offers and secure, reliable services contributed to the encouraging results. We look forward to a strong second half of 2006,"Dixon stressed.

The number of transactions made through the Visa network also increased significantly with a total number of almost 38 million, a 16.4 percent increase over the same period in 2005. Transactions at merchant point-of-sale terminals accounted for approximately 18.5 million while the rest were ATM withdrawals and cash advances.

At the end of June 2006 there were over 8.3 million Philippine-based Visa cards in circulation. Visa Credit products represented 2 million cards while Visa Debit and Prepaid products accounted for over 6.3 million cards.

According to Dixon, Visa International still has a huge opportunity for growth in the Philippines, as 84 percent of the consumer purchase in the Philippines is made through cash. This means, he said that there is a sizeable market to be tapped in terms of attracting them to use card payments.

There are three benefits, why a consumer should prefer to use cards, instead of cash, these include; convenience, security and rewards.

Dixon, together with other Visa International staff was here in Cebu yesterday to conduct its annual awareness, and educational program on how to use payment tools wisely to students.

This program is an exercise that the company have been conducting across the country, to educate young people on wise usage of payment tools like card, and responsible financial management, among others.