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Visa Credit Card



Since the dawn of electronic payments, Visa has been the most popular and most widely accepted credit card brand in the world. Many people have a VISA credit card, but few of them may know that VISA is actually an abbreviation for Visa International Service Association, a multinational corporation headquartered in San Francisco, USA. The company is traded at the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “V”, and it has the largest electronic payment network in the world.

The predecessor of VISA credit cards is the Bank of America which launched a credit card called “BankAmericard” in 1958. VISA was born eighteen years later, in 1976, following a lengthy series of mergers and strategic financial operations. A promotional ad of that time shows how VISA is replacing BankAmericard to become the most popular credit card in America and later around the world.

Having in mind the brand’s solid background, it is not a wonder that most Canadian banks have included VISA products in their everyday banking services and loan portfolios. In fact, the Bank of Montreal (BMO) is the only bank of “the big five” that offers Mastercard credit cards, while the other four – Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank of Canada, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and the Toronto Dominion Bank are official partners to VISA.

Bank of Nova Scotia has included a number of VISA credit cards in its range of lending solutions, including Scotia momentum VISA card which offers maximum cash-back on every spending; ScotiaGold Passport VISA with a lucrative reward program; and Scotiabank Value Visa card with an interest rate of just 3.99% for the first six months. ScotiaGold Passport offers the opportunity to up to 30,000 bonus points that may be used to book tickets for rail travel and flights, purchase holiday and cruise packages, book hotel room, etc. With the rewards program of the bank, customers enjoy the services of its travel agency, gaining access to cruise lines, travel websites, and tour operators.

The Visa banking cards of Royal Bank of Canada fall in the following categories: credit cards for travellers, including VISA Infinite Avion, British Airways Visa, Visa Gold Preferred, etc. In addition, the reward program covers credit cards such as RBC Rewards Visa Gold and Visa Classic II, credit cards with low interest rate like Visa Classic Low Rate, credit cards for students like Visa Classic Student, and Visa cards without annual fees such as Starbucks Duetto Visa and RBC Rewards Visa Gold.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce offers the following Visa cards: CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite Card combines lucrative benefits with fast reward points accumulation (card holders earn 1,5 Aeroplan Mile per dollar spent at groceries, gas stations, and drug stores; moreover, customers have access to all available seats on Air Canada flights and may use their Aeroplan Miles even after one year of inactivity); CIBC Platinum VISA card comes with no annual fee and its credit limit is up to $50,000; the CIBC Dividend Card allows its holders to earn one percent cash-back on their purchases. All accumulated rebates are credited to the holder’s account upon issue of the December statement.

The Visa products of TD Canada Trust include three brand-new credit cards for travellers - TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card, TD Platinum Travel Visa Card and TD Classic Travel Visa Card. Together with these products, Toronto Dominion Bank offers Visa card with reward programs such as TD Rebate Rewards Visa Card, the no-fee GM Card, TD Gold Select Visa Card, TD Green Visa Card, etc.