Payment Cards
Payment card covers a range of different cards that can be presented by a cardholder to make a payment. There are four types of payment cards; credit card, debit card, ATM card and prepaid card.

Credit Card is a card entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services. The issuer of the card grants a line of credit that allows the holder (consumer) to make purchase or obtain a cash advance up to the approved credit limit. Several commercial banks have provided to their customers credit card in conjunction with Visa and Mastercard.

Debit Card is a card which provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. Functionally, it can be called an electronic check, as the funds are withdrawn directly from cardholder’s bank account within the remaining balance. It can also allow cardholders to withdraw cash from their deposit account through ATM, essentially acting as the ATM card.

ATM card is a card that can be used at ATMs for transactions like account balance inquiry, cash withdrawals, and so on. It is similar to the debit card since the card is directly connected to a bank account, however it cannot be used for purchasing purpose.

Prepaid Card means a card where the money is replenished by depositing on a virtual account related to that card, and that amount of money can be spent at any participating stores. In some cases, the card is designed exclusively for use on the Internet, and so there is no physical card. Typical applications of a prepaid card include phone cards, gift cards, and travel cards.

Payment Card transactions are increasing in both currencies, but USD denominated transactions take more than 70% in terms of volume. Transactions like cash deposit, POS payments are only available in USD. Although the number of credit and debit cards which can support the POS transaction is increasing, payment cards is mainly used for cash withdrawal at ATMs, rather than purchase on POS.

In Cambodia, ATMs and POS support cardholders to access services like deposit balance inquiries, cash withdrawals, and purchases. Currently, there is no shared switch for the card based electronic payment on a national level. Instead, there is an interbank ATM switch called ‘Easy Cash’. Easy Cash was established in 2008, by Visa along with some commercial banks. It is not an independent institution but more like a consortium. As of June 2014, Easy Cash connects 285 ATMs of 7 member banks. The member banks are;

- Cathay United Bank
- Canadia Bank
- Union Commercial Bank
- Cambodian Public Bank
- Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia
- Cambodia Asia Bank

Easy cash provides interbank balance inquiries and cash withdrawal services only in USD denomination. Other services like cash deposits, funds transfer and bill payments are not available. Customers who uses balance inquiry or who uses cash withdrawal at other bank’s ATM has to pay USD 0.3 or USD 0.5 for each transaction. On the other hand, there is no domestic interbank POS network. Card payment transactions in Cambodia are processed within the same issuer’s network or via international network like Visa.