AIB announced that they are finally going to follow all the other Irish banks by ditching Laser cards and replacing them with Visa Debit cards. The changeover at AIB won’t start until mid  2012.  The change will affect about  1.4 million AIB Laser card holders.

Bank of Ireland  announced in Oct 2010 that they will start issuing  Visa Debit cards to their customers in “the second half of 2011.” (No sign of them yet at BOI)

A Visa Debit card can be used for point-of-sale transactions as well as those online and on the telephone, while also operating as an ATM and a cheque guarantee card.
The main benefit the Visa Debit card has over Laser-  is that it can be used much more widely-  with acceptance in over 24m locations worldwide and through one of the world’s largest ATM networks. It will remove the need for having a credit card to shop online – which is good news for younger people and many others who just can’t get a credit card.They can now take advantage of the lower prices and better choices available at online shopping sites.

Another useful card to have for paying for Ryanair bookings and avoiding the booking fee – is a Prepaid Mastercard. Read more about the Prepaid Mastercard Ireland

Halifax was the first  bank in Ireland to offer a Visa Debit card.  Prior to that all banks in Ireland only offered the Laser Debit Card .
In  September 2009 – Ulster Bank started issuing Visa Debit cards instead of Laser cards. This proved to be a good idea – because many Halifax customers moved to Ulster Bank after Halifax pulled out of Ireland.

PTSB began issuing Visa debit cards  to  existing customers in  August 2010 and  have now replaced all Laser cards.