
Benefits with debit cards
The use of debit cards in South Africa has risen by more 18% a year for the past three years, whereas internationally debit card usage has increased by 13%. According to data released by Visa, debit card spending on clothing, food and beverages increased by 19% over the past year, while there has been significant growth in online debit card purchases. However the fastest growing retail segment for debit card purchases over the past year to June 2012 was fuel, with an increase of 150%. In addition, South African banks have decreased per transaction cardholder fees for using debit cards, which has resulted in fewer ATM withdrawals and more debit purchase transactions.
“This growth is consistent with that in other industrialised markets,” said Herman Botes, director of consumer debit at Visa for sub-Saharan Africa. “Given that South African banks are now offering debit-card holders most of the same loyalty and other benefits associated with credit cards, so we expect to see this growth trend continue.”
Botes went on to state that people still do not understand the benefits of using debit cards over cash. These benefits include various promotional offers, convenience and security.
Whitepapers
Related reading
Central banks best suited to issue digital currencies
By Aaran Fronda A recent report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that central banks rather than private ... read more
Instant payments: innovations inbound for corporates
In 2020, instant payments look set to continue their current trajectory to become the biggest trend in payments. While these schemes already offer numerous benefits to corporates, leveraging innovations such as APIs and request to pay will go some way to unlocking their full potential, argues Michael Knetsch
Obstacles exist for banks to meet ECB’s instant payments goal
The cost of joining instant payment platforms will be one of many hurdles banks and payment services providers must overcome to meet ... read more
Banks must be aware of “biases” in data used to train ML models
Financial institutions need to be conscious of biases in the historical data that is being used to train machine learning (ML) models, ... read more