WHERE CAN I GET A VISA CARD FOR INTERNATIONAL USE?

A visa card is becoming more popular in the daily life. The article below will answer for the question “Where can I get a visa card for international use?”

1. The Definition of Visa Card

Visa Card is a card with a global payment network, issued by Visa International Service Association  (Visa Inc.) – an American multinational financial services company headquartered in Foster City, California, United States.

 

Visa cards are used for purposes such as withdrawing money, making payments for online purchases or making purchases at points that accept Visa cards. Currently in the world, Visa card is a popular card, present in 190 countries around the world.

A special feature of Visa card is that although it is linked and issued by domestic banks, cardholders can completely use the card to pay abroad. Very convenient for people who often travel or work abroad.

2. The Differences between Visa and Master Card

Criteria	Visa card	MasterCard
Publishing Affiliate Organization	Visa International Service Association	MasterCard Worldwide
How to recognize the card	Visa icon in the right corner of the card	Mastercard icon in the right corner of the card
Confidentiality	Secure with  3D Secure Technology	EMV chip technology
Scope of use	Global but more popular and preferred in Asia	Global but more popular and preferred in America
Issuing card type	Visa credit card Visa Debit Card Visa prepaid card	Mastercard credit card Mastercard Debit Card Mastercard Prepaid Card
Level of domestic use	Accepted payment at more points than Mastercard	Accepted for payment at less points than Visa card

3. Types of Visa Cards

Visa cards are currently divided into 3 main types, suitable for the needs of customers. As follows:

Visa Debit Card (Visa debit card) 

Visa Debit card is also known as Visa international debit card or Visa international payment card. This is a card that is linked directly to your payment account. You use the money available from the current account opened at the bank. Usage money is the amount of money you have in your bank account.

You can use Visa Debit card to perform functions such as withdrawal, payment when shopping, transfer… depending on your usage needs and the amount of money you have in your account.

Note, transactions can only be made with a value equal to or less than the amount you have in your account. For example, if you have 2 million VND in your account, you can only use less than this balance. To use more you need to deposit money into the account.

With this type of Visa Debit card, some banks will ask you to maintain a minimum amount in your account. There are also some banks that do not require this maintenance amount.

Visa Debit cards are accepted at ATMs with Visa symbols at home and abroad, POS machines that accept payments or make online payments. Especially, with Visa Debit card, the money in the account can be profitable monthly with interest rate without term.

Visa Credit Card (Visa credit card)

Visa Credit card is also known as Visa international credit card. This is a type of Visa card that the bank will grant the cardholder an amount according to the pre-agreed limit between the card issuer and the customer. Cardholders can use this money to make transactions such as: Payment for shopping, cash withdrawal…

By the payment deadline, the cardholder must return the used amount to the bank. Usually banks will waive interest for cardholders for a period of 45 – 60 days (depending on the type of card you open). If you pay the used amount within this period, no interest will be charged. After the interest-free period, if you do not fully refund the used amount, the amount will start to be charged interest.

Therefore, using money on a credit card is similar to a loan. The bank gives you a loan to spend first, then you pay it back to the bank at the specified time. That’s why credit cards are also known as “spend first – pay later” cards.

For Visa credit cards, interest will be applied in case of late payment or failure to pay off the outstanding balance of the previous period. In addition to the interest rate, there are some additional fees such as cash withdrawal fees, foreign currency conversion fees…

Visa Prepaid Card (Visa prepaid card)

Visa Prepaid card is also known as Visa prepaid card. This type of card has a similar usage method to Visa Debit card. The only difference between Visa Debit and Visa prepaid cards is that Visa Prepaid cards are not linked to a bank account. Customers can use prepaid cards to pay when shopping. Some banks issue Visa Prepaid cards but limit the two features of transferring and withdrawing money at ATM.

Prepaid Visa cards can be issued as physical or virtual cards (non-physical cards). Virtual Visa  card is a prepaid card but does not have a blank card. Currently, VPBank and Sacombank are typical banks that open virtual Visa cards. With this type of virtual Visa card, cardholders can still do normal banking thanks to the virtual bank card on the phone.

To better understand the characteristics of the above Visa cards, you can refer to the comparative data table below: 

Criteria	Visa prepaid card	Visa Debit Card	Visa credit card
Characteristic	– Like a phone SIM, the cardholder recharges the card to spend. Usage limit is based on the amount of money in the card – Issuance of virtual cards (non-physical cards)	– Linked to an account opened at a bank. Cardholders use the money in their accounts to transfer, withdraw cash, and pay when shopping. The money used is the cardholder’s money, the cardholder can pay into his/her account. – The amount in the account can earn interest at the interest rate without term	The bank grants money to the cardholder to spend in advance, according to the credit limit agreed between the bank and the customer. The cardholder must return the issued amount, if it is past the specified date, interest will be charged.
Basic Features	Pay when shopping	– Cash withdrawals – Transfer – Pay when shopping	– Pay when shopping. Can receive incentives such as discounts, refunds, redeeming points, redeeming miles… – Cash withdrawal (high fees and interest, should not use this feature if there is no need)
Issuing bank	Some issuing banks	Most banks issue	Most banks issue

4. Where Can I Get A Visa Card For International Use?

Each type of Visa card will have its own requirements when making a card, given by the issuing bank. Usually Visa debit cards and Visa prepaid cards are made quite easy. And Visa credit cards will have stricter requirements on the income of customers opening the card.

Conditions

Visa Prepaid Card	Visa Debit Card	Visa Credit Card
– 15 years or older – Having full legal capacity for civil acts	– 15 years or older – Having full legal capacity for civil acts	– 18 years or older – Have proof of income. Depending on the card class, the income level may be different

Documents and procedures 

Visa Prepaid/Visa Debit card	Visa Credit Card
Identity card/ID card/passport	– Identity card/ID card/passport – Proof of income

Steps to apply for a Visa card

When applying to open a regular Visa card, you will go through the following steps: 

• Step 1:  You bring your identity card to the bank branch/transaction office  where you want to open a Visa card
• Step 2: Fill in the card opening registration form that the bank staff gives you
• Step 3: Pay the necessary fees when opening the card. The bank approves the application and sets a date to pick up the card

For Visa Credit cards, the bank will need time to verify the card opening documents before deciding whether to approve the card opening for customers or not. So when making Visa Credit card will take more time than other types of Visa cards.

In addition to the direct opening registration method as above, now some banks accept to open Visa cards online on digital banking applications. Customers do not need to spend time traveling to a bank branch. All card opening operations are done online. Just a few simple steps, it takes about 5 minutes to register, you can open a Visa card and use it.