Visa looking to get more customers to use cards for payments

"Visa Europe" has allocated over one million Euros for the campaign to encourage card payments in Romania.

"Visa Europe has earmarked over one million Euros for advertising the benefits of paying by card in the October 2009 - September 2010 fiscal year together with its partner banks", the general manager for Romania of "Visa Europe", Mr. Cătălin Creţu said. According to him, "this amount does not include the expenses with production or with banks" communication channels".

Two awareness campaigns with each lasting eight weeks unfolded in 2009, one before Easter and one before Christmas, and a similar campaign will begin this year and will take place between January 18th and March 31st.

• 88% of the total volume of card transactions go through ATMs

The "Visa" official says that currently only 12% of card transaction take place through POSs, with the remaining 88% going through ATMs, whereas in mature markets, POS transactions exceed 50% of the total turnover, which, according to Mr. Creţu, means that "this industry still has potential for domestic growth". What"s more, he said that such growth could be spurred by expanding the acceptance of credit card payments to cover areas where card owners regularly make large payments, such as when paying taxes.

Right now, 41 mayoralties accept the payment of taxes by card, of which 25 are county capitals, but only 5 accept the payment of taxes online. Discussing Bucharest, Mr. Creţu explained that the mayoralties of the 2nd and 3rd district may implement the payment system in the coming weeks. "Apart from the mayoralty of the 4th district, all the mayoralties of the other districts accept card payments by POSs", Mr. Creţu said, and according to him, "the average amount of local taxes is 50 to 90 Euros. For purchases of similar value, customers would automatically would use their cards to pay for them".

Another segment where the "Visa" official would like to see card payments introduced for the purchase of RCA and Casco car insurance policies. The company expects another 2 or 3 major insurers to join this initiative in 2010, after "Allianz-Ţiriac" and "Astra Asigurări" have already launched this system.