Payment card

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Payment cards are part of a payment system issued by financial institutions, such as a bank, to a customer that enables its owner (the cardholder) to access the funds in the customer's designated bank accounts, or through a credit account and make payments by electronic transfer with a payment terminal and access automated teller machines (ATMs).^[1] Such cards are known by a variety of names, including bank cards, ATM cards, client cards, key cards or cash cards.

There are a number of types of payment cards, the most common being credit cards, debit cards, charge cards, and prepaid cards. Most commonly, a payment card is electronically linked to an account or accounts belonging to the cardholder. These accounts may be deposit accounts or loan or credit accounts, and the card is a means of authenticating the cardholder. However, stored-value cards store money on the card itself and are not necessarily linked to an account at a financial institution. The largest global card payment organizations are: UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard and American Express.^[2]

It can also be a smart card that contains a unique card number and some security information such as an expiration date or with a magnetic strip on the back enabling various machines to read and access information.^[3] Depending on the issuing bank and the preferences of the client, this may allow the card to be used as an ATM card, enabling transactions at automatic teller machines; or as a debit card, linked to the client's bank account and able to be used for making purchases at the point of sale; or as a credit card attached to a revolving credit line supplied by the bank. In 2017, there were 20.48 billion payments cards (mainly prepaid cards) in the world.^[4]