Can Maestro Cards be used 'offline'?

[reb0118]

Is payment with "Maestro" accepted for "off-line" transactions, e.g. like those performed on board trains with the railstaff's mobile avantix machine?

 

[button_boxer]

Yes in general, but you should ask your particular bank to be sure. I know with Visa some cards support offline use and others don't, and you can't necessarily tell from looking at the card which is which.

 

[island]

Maestro cards are being phased out in the UK and replaced by MasterCard debit cards. But they can exist in both online-only and offline configuration depending on the bank.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

My Maestro was replaced buy a Visa so many years ago that I'm already on my 4th card since my last Maestro now... I didn't realise there were still any Maestros around!

 

[HilversumNS]

I thought card such as Maestro HAD to be used for online transactions only, as they could be issued to 16yos who are not allowed credit?

I used to have a Visa Electron card that would often fail when used at pay-at-pump machines.

 

[headshot119]

I thought card such as Maestro HAD to be used for online transactions only, as they could be issued to 16yos who are not allowed credit?

I used to have a Visa Electron card that would often fail when used at pay-at-pump machines.

No because by that logic Visa Debit cards would all HAVE to be online only.

 

[HilversumNS]

I guess there must be some sort of 'flag' on the card then when they are associated with an under-18s bank account, the flag indicating online authorisation only.

 

[island]

I thought card such as Maestro HAD to be used for online transactions only, as they could be issued to 16yos who are not allowed credit?

I used to have a Visa Electron card that would often fail when used at pay-at-pump machines.

The parallel card scheme to Visa Electron was Solo; however, the Solo scheme was closed a few years ago. Maestro cards can be issued in varieties with and without online authorisation required.

I guess there must be some sort of 'flag' on the card then when they are associated with an under-18s bank account, the flag indicating online authorisation only.

Yes there is such a flag. It can be set for minors, people with bad credit, people who have requested such a feature (so that transactions will get declined if there are not certainly funds available), or various other reasons.

 

[WillPS]

Maestro cards are being phased out in the UK and replaced by MasterCard debit cards. But they can exist in both online-only and offline configuration depending on the bank.

Is that still definitely the case? Clydesdale and BoI (Post Office) are still both issuing Maestro cards (although they are the only ones doing so now it seems), and it appears MasterCard are now extending the PayPass scheme to them (http://www.maestrocard.com/uk/paypass/learn.html).

 

[button_boxer]

Is that still definitely the case? Clydesdale and BoI (Post Office) are still both issuing Maestro cards (although they are the only ones doing so now it seems), and it appears MasterCard are now extending the PayPass scheme to them (http://www.maestrocard.com/uk/paypass/learn.html).

Yorkshire Bank (which these days is the same organization as Clydesdale) seem to be issuing Maestro cards to some people (including me, a couple of months ago) and Debit MasterCard cards to others. I'm not sure if there's any logic to who gets which.

 

[WillPS]

Yorkshire Bank (which these days is the same organization as Clydesdale) seem to be issuing Maestro cards to some people (including me, a couple of months ago) and Debit MasterCard cards to others. I'm not sure if there's any logic to who gets which.

Seems to have been the way they've done things for a while now though. Is Debit MasterCard not available in "authorise all"/online-only mode or something?

 

[island]

Is that still definitely the case? Clydesdale and BoI (Post Office) are still both issuing Maestro cards (although they are the only ones doing so now it seems), and it appears MasterCard are now extending the PayPass scheme to them (http://www.maestrocard.com/uk/paypass/learn.html).

Yes, they're being phased out, but slowly. Contrast another UK bank, Danske Bank, which finally got around to moving everyone to MasterCard Debit in the last year.

MasterCard debit cards can also be set to authorize all transactions, as can any card on any card scheme. [Issuers have discretion as to which card portfolios they might do this with, and most credit cards are unlikely to have the flag set.]

 

[reb0118]

The reason I ask is that I can not remember the last time ANY passenger presenting a Clydesdale/Yorkshire Maestro card to me for payment has had the transaction authorised. Most just decline but recently I've had the message "This account does not support a valid chip" or words to that effect.

Previously we had a problem with Clydesdale as they had a non uniform number of numbers on the card. 17 as opposed to 16? IIRC and our systems did not like that.

 

[island]

Card scheme rules support 13-19 digit card numbers. Some people having only seen 16 digit numbers make silly decisions when coding applications...

 

[WillPS]

Yes, they're being phased out, but slowly. Contrast another UK bank, Danske Bank, which finally got around to moving everyone to MasterCard Debit in the last year.

MasterCard debit cards can also be set to authorize all transactions, as can any card on any card scheme. [Issuers have discretion as to which card portfolios they might do this with, and most credit cards are unlikely to have the flag set.]

Appreciate the insight just seems weird that they're promoting PayPass on a product they're looking to retire.

The reason I ask is that I can not remember the last time ANY passenger presenting a Clydesdale/Yorkshire Maestro card to me for payment has had the transaction authorised. Most just decline but recently I've had the message "This account does not support a valid chip" or words to that effect.

Previously we had a problem with Clydesdale as they had a non uniform number of numbers on the card. 17 as opposed to 16? IIRC and our systems did not like that.

It seems from my casual observations that Clydesdale are handing out Maestro cards and MasterCard Debit cards in a similar fashion to how they handed out Solo and Switch cards respectively in years gone by.

I'm pretty sure the Visa scheme allows for different lengths of card number - from memory 13 and 16 digits (although I've never seen a 13 digit one I must say).