The public relations war over who has the best debit card program escalated last week with competing announcements by MasterCard International and Visa USA.
MasterCard staged the first transcontinental purchases with its Maestro card, underscoring the advances it has made internationally in a joint venture with Europay International.
Visa responded by announcing that volume on its debit cards in the United States had reached one million transactions a day - underscoring the fact that its programs here are larger than MasterCard's.
Maestro Acceptance Tested
With the cameras rolling, R. Bernard J. van Eldik, the chairman of Europay International, toured Osage Beach, Mo., Tuesday, using Maestro cards issued by banks in Holland to make purchases at a McDonald's, a Benneton store, and a Baskin-Robbins outlet. The chain outlets in the resort community are conducting a test of Maestro accceptance.
The online debit unit of MasterCard hopes to close the gap on Visa's competing Interlink program, which is more than twice Maestro's size in acceptance by U.S. merchants.
The message is that merchants who accept Maestro will attract business from overseas tourists.
Big Earopean Customer Base
"There is a huge customer base coming from Europe, and they would like to use" their Maestro cards, Mr. van Eldik said. The program is "taking off very rapidly" in Latin America, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur among other places, he said.
Maestro formed a joint venture with EuroPay about a year ago that has linked together local debit programs to "internationalize" an existing market, said Mr. van Eldik.
He was chairman of Maestro International until last Monday, when MasterCard International president Alex W. Hart assumed the title.
Europe Leading U.S.
Maestro now reports that banks have committed to issue 100.4 million of its cards, including 66.2 million in Europe.
Mr. van Eldik said online debit cards have advanced more rapidly on the continent than in the United States.
One reason is that credit cards are more exclusive there, and the option of deferred payment is less of a factor in the consumers' shopping choices, he said.
Security Is Found in PINs
Consumers consider it an advantage not to have to carry cash, and they like the security of using personal identification numbers to draw on their checking accounts for purchases, he said.
Mr. van Eldik said 220,600 of the 276,800 point of sale terminals that permit Maestro acceptance are in Europe. About 9,600 U.S. merchant outlets have agreed to accept Maestro.
Peter Gustafson, a Visa senior vice president, said visitors from Europe already use their offline Visa Debit cards for 67,000 transactions a day in the United States. He said the cards have the advantage of wider acceptance than an online card.
"The traveler from Europe could be using a Maestro card at a fast food restaurant, but that doesn't exactly hit the home run" that the offline Visa card does, Mr. Gustafson said.
MasterCard offers an offline card - the MasterDebit card - but the association is emphasizing the online product.
Visa said the use of its debit cards had doubled in two years to reach the million-sales-a-day threshold. Visa offers an offline card that is accepted at all the merchant outlets that accept Visa credit cards, as well as the Interlink brand of online cards accepted at about 20,000 outlets in the U.S..
Banks have issued 32 million offline Visa Check and online Interlink cards, and projects 100 million of its cards will be in ciculation by the end of 1996.
