Bankcard (credit card)

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Bankcard, founded in 1974, was a shared brand credit card issued by Australian financial institutions, and accepted only by businesses within Australia, New Zealand, and the Cook Islands. When first introduced, Bankcard dominated the Australian credit card market, until the introduction of its transnational counterparts such as VISA and MasterCard into Australia a decade or so later. As of 2004, Bankcards were held by 2.3 million people and accepted by 350,000 establishments. Bankcard.com.au reported an annual charge volume of $5.5 billion AUD.

On 2 February 2006 the Bankcard Association of Australia announced that it would phase out all of its cards by the end of the year, citing declining transaction volumes and market share compared to VISA and MasterCard branded cards. Existing cardholders were to be offered alternative credit cards by their issuing banks.

By the time of this announcement, the National Australia Bank was the only bank still issuing Bankcards - the Commonwealth Bank stopped issuing them in December 2005, and Westpac stopped issuing them in June 2005 - however other banks were continuing to process Bankcard transactions through the EFTPOS network.

The National Australia Bank was offering replacement accounts to its Bankcard customers, duplicating the features (annual fee, interest rate, etc.) of the old accounts with a special Visa card. All National Bankcard accounts were transferred or closed by 19 May, 2006. The Commonwealth Bank has stated that it would convert all existing Bankcard card holders to either a Mastercard or a Visa card by 31 October 2006. Other banks were expected to follow suit during 2006.

Merchants within Australia were able to accept Bankcards up to, and including, 31 December 2006. Starting 1 January 2007, Bankcard would no longer be accepted by any merchant.

Bankcard operations were closed in New Zealand during October 2005.

As at September 2007, the bankcard website is non-existent.

At the time they were first introduced, it was felt that Bankcard was 'a sign of the devil' as the logo resembled three sixes, or the number of the beast.^[1]

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