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Visa Inc. announced today that it has an agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to test Visa payWave contactless cards that will be sold through kiosks in L.A. Metro stations, through the Internet and over the phone. The cards all carry the Visa brand and can be used for transit fares and as general purpose prepaid cards, the company says. Commuters who buy a card at the kiosk can load up to $500 on the cards. Those who order one through the Internet or via telephone can load up to $10,000 and use the cards at ATMs as well, the company says. The personalized cards can accept direct deposit for those consumers who also want to use them as payroll cards. Working with Minneapolis-based Ready Credit Corp. and the L.A. authority, Visa plans to make the cards available next year, Sandy Thaw, Visa senior business leader for global product innovation, tells CardLine. The test will run for 12 months and Visa expects to distribute about 10,000 personalized cards and 10,000 kiosk-sold cards, Thaw says. In addition, Visa is displaying a fare gate at the Cartes and Identification show in Paris this week designed to show that Visa payWave can be used at Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens Paris Metro gates along with the existing system. MasterCard Worldwide also announced today that it has a test with Paris Metro authority to show that its PayPass technology can work with the system. Visa has transit tests under way in South Korea, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, India, Turkey and the United Kingdom, the company says. MasterCard has PayPass transit tests or projects in London, Liverpool, United Kingdom, Taiwan, New Jersey, and New York City.
