Cash Cards

We will be adding to the articles under this section, as more information is gained from individuals involved in these pilot programs.

In the early 1990's following the huge boom in pre-paid phonecards, a number of bank supported Cash Card trials were conducted in many countries around the globe. The general public in dozens of countries had embraced the card alternative to making public phone calls with the coin operated telephones, finding a phone call currency card much easier, especially for long distance calls.

Why not try the same idea with General CASH Cards, where the card can be used to make many types of purchases from merchants supporting Cash card programs. With Smart cards becoming ever cheaper to produce, this idea became financially viable by the early 90's.

Cash Cards, or E-Purse cards are CURRENCY pre-loaded, or loadable cards. Cards may be disposable, or re-loadable, and usually the chip type will indicate which it is.
Pre-loaded cards with in most cases have the loaded value stated on the card prominently. These often are Bank cards with a CASH loadable component.
Pilot E-Purse projects have been trialed in many countries.
Mondex and Visa Cash internationally. Omnipay, and Moneta in Italy. Paysafe in Austria, Danmont in Denmark, K-Cash in Korea, Avant in Finland. In Netherlands there was Chipknip and Clipper. eLitoCash in Lithuania, CashCard in Singapore, and Geldkarte in Germany. In addition to Visa Cash in Spain, there was also Monedero, and Moneo for France.
These are just an overview of the main trials and Cash card programs, and is not claiming to be complete. Later agreements between organizations have combined some country systems.