Is VISA debit card "related" at all to VISA credit cards?

[nickifan]

Maybe another dumb question, but my mind is reeling these days.

I have a Chase Visa CC and Chase Banking. I plan to close out Chase banking and go to a credit union for checking, plus they have a Visa DEBIT card.
I did ask the CU guy (who was puzzled why, of course) if the Visa debit card was related at all to any Visa CC's and he said no. (A few other of my CC's are Visa, rest MasterCard; also have a Discover and Amex.)

Does that sound right? I don't want to go thru this to open the CU and have a Visa check card if the CU funds can be "annexed" by any of the Visa-managed credit cards that I have once I file Ch 7. I looked at another CU too and its debit card is thru MasterCard...so I guess all debit cards are "managed" or whatever you want to call it thru the big card companies?
I thought the CU's debit card was its "own"...so I would never find a debit card not affiliated in any way with a big CC company?

Bless you all if you understand me, I'm rambling.

[Flamingo]

Your Visa Debit card is not a credit card - it utilizes funds from your checking account for purchases and is honored at places that accept credit cards; that's basically it.

[justbroke]

VISA and MasterCard license their product to Banks. The VISA CheckCard, and MasterCard Debit card are both debit cards and not credit cards. The only reason why they carry the VISA or MasterCard logo is so that you can use them as payments anywhere those cards are accepted. It's a very cool concept, and I'm unsure if it started in Europe, but these types of debit cards are extremely popular in western Europe, and have been since 1994!!! Maybe the U.S. is just catching up!

The main feature is that the "payment" is process over VISAnet and other payment gateways just like a credit card. However, just like flamingo mentions, the processing actually hits your checking account for an immediate debit. (Hence the term "debit" card.) Since the credit cards work basically the same way this makes it real easy for the Banks to do this.

Now why do the Banks offer this? They make money on it! Every VISA/MasterCard transaction carries a fee to the merchant which takes the card! This is known as the discount rate and can be 1.5% to 3% or more! So the Bank is doing you a favor, but making money with it as well! If you use the PIN pad to perform a standard debit based transaction, the bank only makes $0.20 to $0.50 per transaction.

Many Banks are now offering CashBack or VISA Rewards if you use PIN-less transactions. I wonder why???

Okay, so I did a bit of work in the Payment Card Industry. (Note that this may be oversimplified, but that's okay.)

[BigJohn]

I would be cautious of closing about closing your Chase account.

I recently switched banks and the first bank I went to was a credit union. They claimed I might be elegible for a Visa debit card in 6 months - after I had opened a savings account with them.

[BROKEDED]

A six month vesting period is apparently common with credit unions for things like personal loans. I've never heard of waiting for a debit card or is it just the fact that it is a Visa debit?

There are plenty of credit unions that have their own and use the Interlink, Plus, and Cashpoints network, at least here in the Southeast.