VISA is now processing more Check Card transactions than credit card transactions. In fact, VISA Check Cards now represent 35.3% of VISA's total U.S. card volume, compared to 17% just five years ago. Last year, VISA processed 6.9 billion debit card transactions compared to 6.2 billion credit card transactions. Since 1996, VISA's off-line debit card or Check Card volume has more than tripled even though its market share has declined somewhat, from 84% to 77%. During 2001, VISA processed $323,989,969,000 in Check Card volume, a 26.8% increase over the previous year. Of the $324 billion in gross debit card dollar volume posted last year, $205.3 billion was in purchases and $118.7 billion was in cash advances. The number of VISA Check Cards in the market jumped 14.5% during 2001, compared to a 1.7% increase in the number of credit cards. VISA now has 117 million Check Cards and 260 million credit cards in the USA. VISA also reported an 11% increase in the number of merchant locations last year, from 4.4 million to more than 4.9 million. For complete details on VISA's 2001 statistics visit CardData (www.carddata.com).
VISA is now processing more Check Card transactions than credit card transactions. In fact, VISA Check Cards now represent 35.3% of VISA's total U.S. card volume, compared to 17% just five years ago. Last year, VISA processed 6.9 billion debit card transactions compared to 6.2 billion credit card transactions. Since 1996, VISA's off-line debit card or Check Card volume has more than tripled even though its market share has declined somewhat, from 84% to 77%. During 2001, VISA processed $323,989,969,000 in Check Card volume, a 26.8% increase over the previous year. Of the $324 billion in gross debit card dollar volume posted last year, $205.3 billion was in purchases and $118.7 billion was in cash advances. The number of VISA Check Cards in the market jumped 14.5% during 2001, compared to a 1.7% increase in the number of credit cards. VISA now has 117 million Check Cards and 260 million credit cards in the USA. VISA also reported an 11% increase in the number of merchant locations last year, from 4.4 million to more than 4.9 million. For complete details on VISA's 2001 statistics visit CardData (