EC = Maestro

dfx-

I'm in Germany at the minute. My Maestro card works in Rewe (supermarket) and in ATMs, but in Edeka (another supermarket) they won't process payment unless specifically an "EC karte" symbol is present.

Are they not the same thing? They appear to be...

BuffyBot

No, not nessecarily. Maestro isn't one unified system, but a multitude of old national systems (such as Laser in Ireland, EC in Germany). Cards will work in some places, but not everywhere depending on how the individual banks networks are set up.

dfx-

So...it's the same system of payment .i.e. a Maestro card works exactly the same as an ec card and it is the new agglomeration of all these individual old national systems, but some individual shops based on their bank will only or can only accept the original national format...?

GerardKeating

dfx- wrote: »

So...it's the same system of payment .i.e. a Maestro card works exactly the same as an ec card and it is the new agglomeration of all these individual old national systems, but some individual shops based on their bank will only or can only accept the original national format...?

Same with Switch in the UK, they re-branded it as Maestro, but did not really change the card, so it not fully compatible with "International" Maestro.

BuffyBot

dfx- wrote: »

So...it's the same system of payment .i.e. a Maestro card works exactly the same as an ec card and it is the new agglomeration of all these individual old national systems, but some individual shops based on their bank will only or can only accept the original national format...?

Pretty much.