''Carte Bleue'' ( en, Blue Card) was a major debit card payment system operating in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. Unlike

Visa Electron Visa Electron is a debit card product that uses the Visa payment system. It is offered by issuing banks in every country with the exception of Canada, Australia, Argentina, Ireland and the United States. The difference between Visa Electron an ...

Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning "master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubiqu ...

debit cards, Carte Bleue transactions worked without requiring authorization from the cardholder's bank. In many situations, the card worked like a

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

but without fees for the cardholder. The system has now been integrated into a wider scheme called CB or ''carte bancaire'' ("banking card"). All Carte Bleue cards were part of CB, but not all CB cards were Carte Bleue. The system was national, and pure Carte Bleue cards did not operate outside France. However, it is possible and commonplace to get a CB

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

card that operates outside France. Carte Bleue was, technically speaking, the local Visa affiliate. Carte Bleue started in 1967, associating six French banks: BNP, CCF,

Crédit du Nord is a French retail banking network. It consists of the following banks: * , Toulouse, Aquitaine (oldest existing bank in France, founded in 1760) * , Alsace, Lorraine * , Savoy * , Massif Central * , Lyon * , Limoges * , Marseille * itself in t ...

, CIC,

Crédit Lyonnais The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th c ...

, and

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale ...

. Combined Visa cards have existed since 1973 under the name ''Carte Bleue Internationale'', changing to ''Carte Bleue Visa'' in 1976. From 1992 on, all Cartes Bleues / CB have been smart cards. When using a Carte Bleue at a French merchant, the PIN of the card must be used, and a microchip on the card verifies and authenticates the transaction. Only some very limited transactions, such as

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

tolls or parking fees, are paid without PIN. Since

automatic teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...

s also check for the PIN, this measure strongly reduces the incentive to steal Cartes Bleues, since the cards are essentially useless without the PIN (though one may try using the card number for mail-order or e-retailing). Foreign cards without microchips can still be used at French merchants if they accept them, with the usual procedure of swiping the magnetic stripe and signing the receipt. In 2000, Serge Humpich, after failing to convince the makers of a serious flaw he had found two years before, purchased some metro tickets to prove it. He sent the proof to Groupement des Cartes Bancaires. They then initiated criminal action against him, and he was convicted and sentenced to a ten months suspended jail sentence. In 2003, the Cartes Bleues / CB started to move on to the international standard

EMV EMV is a payment method based on a technical standard for smart payment cards and for payment terminals and automated teller machines which can accept them. EMV stands for " Europay, Mastercard, and Visa", the three companies that created th ...

for smart chips, allowing for their use abroad. In 2010, the Carte Bleue brand was phased out in favour of Visa; however, the term ''carte bleue'' continues to be used as a

generic term Trademark distinctiveness is an important concept in the law governing trademarks and service marks. A trademark may be eligible for registration, or registrable, if it performs the essential trademark function, and has distinctive character. Re ...

for EFT-based

payment cards Payment cards are part of a payment system issued by financial institutions, such as a bank, to a customer that enables its owner (the cardholder) to access the funds in the customer's designated bank accounts, or through a credit account and ma ...

, including debit and credit cards.

References

External links

Official Site of Carte Bleue

Official Site of CB

Fuel Cards Website
{{Credit cards Financial services companies established in 1967 Products and services discontinued in 2010 1967 establishments in France 2010 disestablishments in France Smart cards Debit cards Debit card issuer associations Credit card issuer associations

See also

References

External links