Carte Bleue
Encyclopedia
Debit card
A debit card is a plastic card that provides the cardholder electronic access to his or her bank account/s at a financial institution...
payment system operating in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Unlike Visa Electron
Visa Electron
Visa Electron is a debit card available across most of the world, with the exception of Canada, Australia, Ireland and the United States. The card was introduced by VISA in the 1980s and is a sister card to the Visa Debit card...
or Maestro
Maestro (debit card)
Maestro is a multi-national debit card service owned by MasterCard, and was founded in 1990. Maestro cards are obtained from associate banks and can be linked to the card holder's current account, or they can be prepaid cards...
debit cards, Carte Bleue allows transactions without requiring authorization from the cardholder's bank. In many situations, the card works like a credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
but without fees for the cardholder. The system has now been integrated into a wider scheme called CB
Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB
Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB , also known as simply CB, is France's national interbank network, with over 46,000 ATMs and over 1 million EFTPOS acceptance points....
or carte bancaire ("banking card"). All Carte Bleue cards are part of CB, but not all CB cards are Carte Bleue.
The system is national, and pure Carte Bleue cards do not operate outside France. However, it is possible and commonplace to get Carte Bleue Visa card that operates outside France. Carte Bleue is, technically speaking, the local affiliate of Visa (All Visa card in France are also Carte Bleue). Today, all cards also double with the electronic cash
Electronic cash
Electronic cash is the debit card system of the German Central Credit Committee, the association which represents the top German financial interest groups. Usually paired with a checking account, cards with an Electronic Cash logo are only handed out by proper credit institutions...
system Mon€o
Mon€o
Moneo, sometimes branded as mon€o, is an electronic purse system available on French bank cards to allow small purchases to be made without cash....
.
Carte Bleue started in 1967, associating six French banks (BNP, CCF
Crédit Commercial de France
Crédit Commercial de France was a commercial bank in France, headquartered in Paris, avenue des Champs-Élysées. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC in April 2000, and was renamed HSBC France on 1 November 2005....
, Crédit du Nord
Crédit du Nord
Crédit du Nord is a French retail banking network.It consists of the followings banks:* Banque Courtois, Toulouse, Aquitaine * Banque Kolb, Alsace, Lorraine* Banque Laydernier, Savoy...
, CIC
Crédit Industriel et Commercial
Crédit Industriel et Commercial is a financial services group in France, founded in 1859 With its parent-company, Crédit Mutuel it is the fourth largest bank in the country...
, Crédit Lyonnais
Crédit Lyonnais
Crédit Lyonnais is a historic French bank. In the early 1990s it was the largest French bank, majority state-owned at that point. Crédit Lyonnais was the subject of poor management during that period which almost led to its bankruptcy in 1993...
, and Société Générale
Société Générale
Société Générale S.A. is a large European Bank and a major Financial Services company that has a substantial global presence. Its registered office is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, while its head office is in the Tours Société Générale in the business district of La...
. Combined Visa cards exist since 1973 under the name Carte Bleue Internationale, changing to Carte Bleue Visa in 1976).
From 1992 on, all Cartes Bleues / CB have been smart card
Smart card
A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. A smart card or microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile...
s. When using a Carte Bleue at a French merchant, the PIN of the card must be used, and a microchip on the card verifies and authenticates the transaction. Only some very limited transactions, such as small autoroute
Autoroutes of France
The Autoroute system in France consists largely of toll roads, except around large cities and in parts of the north. It is a network of worth of motorways. Autoroute destinations are shown in blue, while destinations reached through a combination of autoroutes are shown with an added autoroute logo...
tolls, are paid without PIN. Since automatic teller machines also check for the PIN, this measure strongly reduces the incentive to steal Cartes Bleues, since the cards are essentially useless without the PIN (though one may try using the card number for mail-order or e-retailing). Foreign cards without microchips can still be used at French merchants if they accept them, with the usual procedure of swiping the magnetic stripe and signing the receipt.
In 2003, the Cartes Bleues / CB started to move on to the international standard EMV
EMV
EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and VISA, a global standard for inter-operation of integrated circuit cards and IC card capable point of sale terminals and automated teller machines , for authenticating credit and debit card transactions.It is a joint effort between Europay, MasterCard and...
for smart chips, allowing for their use abroad.
A minority of Cartes Bleues are credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
s tied to credit lines.