NEW YORK (AP) — No cash on hand to pay the babysitter? Owe your mom $10? Soon you’ll be able to send payments directly to their Visa card.
Visa said Wednesday that it is creating a service to allow individuals to use their Visa card or a bank account to send money to a personal Visa debit, credit or prepaid card. Users also may bring cash to a participating bank to make a transfer.
Users also will be able to send money using a recipient’s mobile phone number or e-mail address. In those cases, recipients will receive a message that someone is sending them money and then enter their own Visa account number to receive it.
Money transferred to debit and prepaid cards will be treated as deposits. Money sent to Visa credit cards will be treated as a payment.
Visa has partnered with two companies that provide technology to banks, Fiserv and CashEdge.
Fiserv operates the ZashPay network, which already is used by about 500 banks and credit unions for person-to-person payments. Fiserv said Wednesday that working with Visa will greatly expand its service, which transfers payments in as short a period as one day.
About 200 banks, including several of the nation’s largest, already use CashEdge’s PopMoney service.
The increasingly competitive field of person-to-person payments includes eBay’s PayPal and a handful of other companies. One advantage Visa will have in the market is that there are about 1.85 billion Visa cards in circulation worldwide.
