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Entrée: The Rocky Origins of Visa’s Debit Card

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Abstract

This chapter recounts the origins of Visa’s debit card, and analyzes why it took more than 20 years to become widely adopted by the member banks. Dee Hock, the founder of Visa, began talking about an “asset card” in the early 1970s, noting that it could easily replace paper checks and perhaps even cash. Visa launched their first debit card product in 1975, known as Entrée, but it was issued by only a handful of member banks. After briefly describing what Visa is and how it is structured, the chapter explains why most banks chose not to issue the Entrée card at the time, and why they eventually changed course in the early 1990s. Shortly after the card was widely issued, the Visa system began processing more debit than credit transactions, bringing it closer to Hock’s vision of a comprehensive Electronic Value Exchange system.

Keywords

  • Credit Card
  • Credit Line
  • Debit Card
  • American Banker
  • Authorization Center

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  • DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-60231-2_15
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Notes

  1. 1.

    Lee WA, “Visa Debit Card Volume Tops Credit Worldwide.” American Banker, 21, 4 (2004):11.

  2. 2.

    Brooke Phillip. “NBI debit card is named ENTRÉE.” American Banker, 22, 8 (1975):1.

  3. 3.

    For a detailed explanation of Visa’s organization and history, see Stearns David, Electronic Value Exchange, (Springer-Verlag, London, 2011).

  4. 4.

    Biographical info on Hock comes from his autobiography. Hock Dee, One From Many: VISA and the Rise of the Chaordic Organization, (Berrett-Koehler, 2005), 98.

  5. 5.

    Ibid. 95.

  6. 6.

    Hock Dee, “Speech before the 1973 ABA Charge Card Conference”. Reprinted in the American Banker, 3, 10 (1973), 4.

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    Ibid.

  9. 9.

    Ibid.

  10. 10.

    Cleveland, Tom. Personal stories written in 1999, given to the author during our interviews. p. 21.

  11. 11.

    Information on Entrée comes from several American Banker articles, and interviews with Tom Honey, who managed the project. See chapter 8 of Stearns, Electronic Value Exchange, for detailed citations.

  12. 12.

    Larkin Kenneth. cited in Nocera Joe, A Piece of the Action, (New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1994), 308.

  13. 13.

    To find out what happened, see Stearns David, Electronic Value Exchange, (Springer-Verlag, London, 2011), Chapter 9.

Further Reading

  • Brooke, P. (1975). NBI debit card is named ENTRÉE. American Banker, 22(8), 1.

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  • Hock, D. (2005). One from many: VISA and the rise of the chaordic organization (p. 8). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

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  • Larkin, K. (1994). cited in Nocera Joe A Piece of the Action (p. 308). New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, W. A. (2004). Visa debit card volume tops credit worldwide. American Banker, 21(4), 11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, D. (2011). Electronic value exchange: Origins of the VISA electronic payment system. London: Springer.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Bibliography

  • Bátiz-Lazo, B., & Smith, A. (2016). The changing industrial organization of epistemic communities during Hong Kong’s progression towards a cashless society (1960s–2000s). IEEE Annals in the History of Computing, 38(2 (Apr–Jun)), 54–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooke, P. (1975). NBI debit card is named ENTRÉE. American Banker, 22(8), 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hock, D. (1973). Speech before the 1973 ABA Charge Card Conference. Reprinted in the American Banker, 3, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hock, D. (2005). One from many: VISA and the rise of the chaordic organization. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larkin, K. (1994). cited in Nocera Joe, A Piece of the Actio. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, W. A. (2004). Visa debit card volume tops credit worldwide. American Banker, 21(4), 11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, D. (2011). Electronic value exchange. London: Springer-Verlag.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information School, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    David L. Stearns

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  1. David L. Stearns
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Correspondence to David L. Stearns .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bangor Business School, Bangor, United Kingdom

    Bernardo Batiz-Lazo

  2. Intercollege Larnaca, Larnaca, Cyprus

    Leonidas Efthymiou

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Stearns, D.L. (2016). Entrée: The Rocky Origins of Visa’s Debit Card. In: Batiz-Lazo, B., Efthymiou, L. (eds) The Book of Payments. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60231-2_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60231-2_15

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