Maestro (debit card)
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Maestro is an international debit card service owned by MasterCard. Maestro cards are obtained from associate banks and can be linked to the cardholder's current account, or they can also be Prepaid cards. The cardholder presents the card at the Point of sale (POS) and this is swiped through the terminal by the assistant or the customer or inserted into a PINpad. The payment is authorised by the card issuer to ensure that the cardholder has sufficient funds in their account to make the purchase and the cardholder confirms the payment by either signing the sales receipt or entering their 4 to 6-digit PIN.
[edit] Acceptance and availability
Maestro, although popular, is less widely accepted worldwide than its rival Visa Electron. Especially in most middle-eastern countries, acceptability of Maestro is very low and it can only be used to withdraw cash from specified ATM machines that accept it.
- In Australia, Maestro is part of the EFTPOS program and is most commonly issued by the Commonwealth Bank.
- In continental Europe, Maestro is, de facto, the successor to the Eurocheque system, since most European banks issued Maestro cards after the Eurocheque card had been discontinued.[citation needed]
- In the United Kingdom, the former Switch debit card system has been rebranded as Maestro and now uses chip and PIN technology. An advertising campaign labels the system as "The new cash". Underneath the branding, however, the system is still the old Switch one and the cards are still fundamentally Switch. For this reason, some visitors from outside the UK may find their Maestro cards declined in shops. As another holdover, certain cards (notably those issued by the HSBC Group) carry an issue number, and their card number as quoted on online card payments actually consists of a 4 digit prefix followed by the sort code and account number of the linked current account. The issue number exists in this situation as the card number itself cannot be changed in the event of the card being lost or stolen, but the issue number can be incremented to differentiate between the new card and old card. Cards are mainly issued by HSBC, First Direct, NatWest, the Royal Bank of Scotland and some prepaid card suppliers. The scheme participates in MasterCard's SecureCode initiative.
- In Ireland, most banks issue debit cards that are cobranded with Maestro and the Irish Laser card logos. These function as a Laser Card in Ireland and as a Maestro card when used abroad, although acceptance is quite patchy. Generally, the Maestro function on these cards only works when they are inserted into a POS terminal. They cannot be used as Maestro over the telephone or on the internet. However, they can be accepted online or over the phone by any merchant who accepts Laser card. All Irish debit cards are now issued with Chip and PIN technology and transactions are normally only authorised by PIN. Most Irish POS terminals now authorise all debit and credit card transactions online[citation needed], so you cannot spend unauthorised funds.
- In Belgium, the existing Bancontact/Mister Cash system will be phased out in favor of Maestro. This is directly in line with the European directive requiring member states to adopt a common payment system by 2010 (see Single Euro Payments Area).
- In Brazil, Maestro has acquired the existing Redeshop service and is in the process of rebranding it as Maestro. Brazilian Caixa Econômica Federal is currently the major Maestro issuer in the world, with over 34,000,000 cards issued as October 2006.
- In Argentina, Maestro is the card used by the Banco de la Nacion Argentina, and others.
- In Venezuela, Maestro is the leading debit card, issued by almost all major banks in the country. It is widely accepted in POS. It works on all ATMs showing the Suiche7B, Conexus and Cirrus logos.
- In the United States, Maestro is a PIN-based debit card network closely related to the Cirrus ATM network, also owned by MasterCard. Like other PIN-debit networks in the U.S., Maestro there relies solely on a standard card and PIN, without a chip; signature-debit transactions in the U.S. are handled through the main MasterCard network or the rival Visa network.
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[edit] External links
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