Chase makes debit cards Blink in three states
In the US, Chase has announced the rollout of 1.8 million Visa debit cards with its Blink contactless payment technology to help make purchases faster for cardholders in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Chase, which introduced its credit cards with Blink in New York last year, is now to offer the Visa contactless payment facility on debit cards, allowing cardholders to make purchases by holding the card close to any participating merchants' card reader at the checkout. Interestingly, this move means that all Chase debit cards (except the Chase Continental Airlines card) will now carry the Visa logo.
When using Blink, the debit card has to be held within one to two inches of the card reader to conduct a transaction, which greatly reduces any possibility of an unintended transaction. The point-of-sale card readers have a built-in safeguard that prevents more than one card from being read at a time, and purchases above US$25 still require a signature as an extra security measure.
Roll-out schedule More than 7 million Chase customers currently have credit cards with Blink. Blink-enabled Visa debit cards are now being sent to cheque account customers as Chase reissues the 1.8 million cards throughout the rollout region. The region's rollout is expected to be complete by the end of June 2006.
According to Michael Cleary, chief operating officer for Chase's Consumer Bank, "Our credit card customers have really liked Blink, so we're bringing the same convenience to our Tri-State debit card customers."
Currently, some 2,000 merchant locations in the New York/Tri-state area, and more than 30,000 throughout the US, are equipped to accept Blink payments.
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