Millions More Turning To Credit Card Convenience
The Age
Friday January 24, 1997
Australia's taste for plastic is picking up pace, with MasterCard International announcing a 29 per cent increase in its credit-card base in the year to September.
MasterCard and its arch-rival, Visa International, dominate the local market with more than seven million credit cards issued between them. Visa has also issued 1.5 million debit cards offering the same functionality as its credit card brand, but using a customer's own funds.
MasterCard's senior vice-president, Australia and New Zealand, Mr Andre Sekulic, said MasterCard holders spent almost $10 billion during the year, an 11 per cent increase on 1995.
The average transaction was $103 for 1996, up from $95 the previous year, he said. The group now has 3.5 million credit cards on issue, up from 2.7 million the previous year.
Although average spending per card was marginally down for the year, this was understandable given the number of new cards issued.
"It takes a while to ramp up spending on new cards, but there's been a significant number of new gold cards issued, and we'd expect that situation to change," he said.
Mr Sekulic said the biggest influx of new cardholders came from Westpac's co-branded GM card.
He said MasterCard was working on other co-branded products likely to be released by the middle of the year.
MasterCard also said its Maestro-Cirrus debit card brand had achieved outstanding success with 5.9 million cards on issue.
Maestro-Cirrus offers international automated teller machine and Eftpos access, with the system holding a dominant position in the Australian market. Of the big four banks only National Australia Bank is not linked to the system, and it is expected to join this year.
Visa's competing Plus-Interlink brand has so far only attracted ANZ Bank, Bendigo Bank and a number of credit unions.
DEALING THE CARDS*
MasterCard
Visa
Number of cards issued 3.5m 5.1m
Increase for year 19pc 20pc
Total spending $9.9b 18.1b
Average transaction $103 n/a
*to June 1996 for Visa and September 1996 for MasterCard
© 1997 The Age
