Visa has launched in Romania, as a premiere in Europe, instant refund services based on Visa Direct, enabling customers to get their money back in real time when they return products or services purchased online by card. The first merchant in Europe to implement the Visa Direct instant refund service is eMAG, Romania’s largest online retailer.
“For over 60 years, Visa has been innovating and developing new ways to pay in stores and online. We are convinced that the new service will be received with enthusiasm by consumers and merchants alike, due to the obvious benefits they offer. For consumers, it is a safe and much quicker way to get their money back, and for merchants it is an important competitive advantage and optimization of back office operations, demonstrating once again the advantage of online card payments over payments with cash on delivery”, stated Cătălin Creţu, General Manager for Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Malta, Visa.
In Romania, more than 80% of online shopping is paid as cash on delivery. Online payments have registered significant growth rates in Romania in recent years, above the growth rate of traditional commerce. For example, the volume of online payments with Visa in Romania increased by 48% in 2018. Consumers who use their debit card when shopping online benefit from fast and fully safe access to their bank account, anywhere, anytime, with no extra costs, while paying with cash on delivery requires additional time for withdrawing money at the ATM and, in some cases, even additional fees.
Visa Direct is a real-time payments platform that allows companies to leverage Visa’s global reach and scale to transform domestic and cross-border payments for businesses and consumers. Visa is working with payment service providers, financial institution clients and strategic partners to roll out services using Visa Direct.
Visa Direct is a service that facilitates funds transfers by Visa’s client financial institutions. Ability to send cross-border transactions depends on a number of factors, including whether the recipient issuer accepts cross-border transactions.
Actual fund availability varies by financial institution and region. Visa requires fast funds enabled issuers to make funds available to their recipient cardholders within a maximum of 30 minutes of approving the transaction.