maestro

flo8s967qjh0nd

I have a relatively new Debit Card from Ulster Bank which has a Maestro label on it. I tried to purchase a book from amazon.co.uk (which accepts maestro) but could not. I was under the impression that Maestro made a debit card work internationally, wherever the maestro symbol was displayed.
Whats the story???

Kensington

Maestro in Ireland (aka Laser) is not quite the same as the UK Maestro debit card system. I found the same issue when trying to use my Bank of Ireland Laser card on play.com - it was rejected, even though play do display the Maestro symbol, the reason for rejection was that they do not accept Laser Maestro cards.

chuckles30

It will work if you're abroad and see an atm with the maestro symbol or at least mine does. I've never tried to use it online.

Terrontress

Banks have both Issuing and Acquiring relationships with schemes, in this case MasterCard.

The UK used to have its own debit scheme called Switch. Switch then became Maestro. To do this the issuing element made their cards compatible with non-UK merchants.

The cards were then reissued with a Maestro logo instead of Switch. So the acquirers then changed their Switch logos to Maestro without changing the IT infrastructure behind it.

So the long and short of it is that only UK Maestro cards will work with UK acquirers.

MOH

There's a big thread about it here

mcaul

Debit cards such as Maestro / laser / visa delta can be used at point of purchase wherever the symbol is displayed worldwide, however when it comes to card not present (internet / mail order / phone) they can only be used in the country of issue.

Something to do with interconnectivity between the banks.

When you present your card, the card provides the swipe machine with additional details to allow the transaction to be completed.

testicle

Irish Maestro's don't work in UK POS machines, but do work in other European ones.