Visa Plus is a worldwide interbank network that provides cash to

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 ...

cardholders. As a subsidiary of Visa Inc., connects all Visa credit,

debit Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit ...

and prepaid cards, as well as ATM cards issued by various banks worldwide bearing the Visa /

Electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...

logo. Plus System, Inc. started out as a consortium formed by 34 major U.S. banks to build a national network of

automated 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, fund ...

s (ATM). It initially was composed of 2,000 ATMs linking 1,000 banks and their customers in 47 states. As the booming ATM industry outgrew regional networks and began to go nationwide in the mid-1980s,

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 ...

giant Visa sought entry in the lucrative ATM network business and acquired a third of Plus System in 1987. Currently, there are over one million Plus-linked ATMs in 170 countries worldwide. By default, Visa / Electron cards are linked to the Plus network, but very often all three logotypes will be shown. Plus is widely used as a local interbank network most common in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

where networks such as

STAR A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

, NYCE and

Pulse In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...

also compete. It is also used in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world ...

, though it is significantly smaller than

Interac Interac is a Canadian interbank network that links financial institutions and other enterprises for the purpose of exchanging electronic financial transactions. Interac serves as the Canadian debit card system and the predominant funds trans ...

there, and in places such as

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

where there are many interbank networks. The main competitor of Plus System is the

Cirrus Cirrus may refer to: Science *Cirrus (biology), any of various thin, thread-like structures on the body of an animal * Cirrus (botany), a tendril *Infrared cirrus, in astronomy, filamentary structures seen in infrared light *Cirrus cloud, a typ ...

network, which is owned by Mastercard, Visa's longtime rival.

References

External links

Visa ATM locator

The Premier ATM Network: 1982-1992
Financial services companies established in 1982 Interbank networks Visa Inc. {{Finance-stub