Bankcard - Withdrawal

Withdrawal

By early 2006, the number of cardholders had declined to around one million. Popularity of the card had declined as other credit card options became available. Bankcard was significantly limited by its lack of acceptance outside Australia and New Zealand. It could not be used for electronic procurement on the internet and by the turn of the century was considered as outdated. Despite this, Bankcard continued to generate profits for member banks, largely because the elderly demographic of cardholders had a low instance of default. In February 2006, however, the Bankcard Association of Australia announced that it would phase out Bankcard by the end of that year, citing the exceptional growth of credit card operations and improvements in technology allowing member banks to perform their own data capture and processing in-house. Existing cardholders were offered alternative credit cards by their issuing banks.

At the time of this announcement, the National Australia Bank remained the only bank still issuing Bankcard. Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank had stopped issuing the card in June and December 2005 respectively. Merchants within Australia were able to accept Bankcards until the end of 2006. Bankcard operations were closed in New Zealand in October 2005.