Mastercard Debit card and Maestro Network

[Anonymous]

Can a US issued Mastercard Debit card be processed at POSs that only accept Maestro debit cards? Apparently from what i've been reading credit cards aren't as widespread in the Netherlands and (anectdotally) most debit card payments are accepted through Maestro and the Maestro network is owned by Mastercard.

I've tried calling Mastercard about it but they pointed me to my bank and the guy at my bank didn't know what Maestro was and eventually ended up reading to me verbatim the first 10 words of the Maestro wikipedia page "Maestro ... is a multi-national debit card service owned by Mastercard" and said "it should work." Can any of you guys shine a light on this?

[Anonymous]

Check out Page 5:

http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/pdf/TPR-Entire_Manual_public.pdf

"Maestro POS Transactions A POS Transaction conducted with: • A Maestro Card, or • A MasterCard Card issued using a BIN identified by the Corporation as “Debit MasterCard” and routed to the Single Message System"

What does that tell us? Well, nothing really. It would appear that Maestro is set up to recognize Maestro cards, cards with the Cirrus logo and Debit MasterCards (routed to the Single Message System). Single Message System appears to be the processing times for the transaction. 

It seems like there is a 50/50 chance it will work. On one hand it sounds like Maestro is set up to recogonize Debit MasterCard; however, our US issued cards are usually online for chip reading while a lot of European cards are approved offline with the chip. So if there are issues with the chip needing to be read online that could pose a problem. This is all just speculation of course. Hopefully someone that actually knows can help.

[Anonymous]

The plot thickens. I waded through the Mastercard Rules and found these tidbits which still make it confusing.

Chapter 12 of the MasterCard Rules, Section 5.10.1, Clause 7 states: "A Merchant [located in the EU or Norway] is not required to accept Maestro Cards as a condition of accepting Mastercard Cards, and vice versa" for cards issued within the EU and Norway. However as my card is not issued within the EU/Norway, the rules state that the above does not apply and instead Chapter 5, Section 5.10.1 applies which does not mention Maestro at all. 

But... maybe it might not matter as it might process as a Maestro debit, not Mastercard debit. Maybe. It doesn't clear anything but makes it more confusing. Chapter 15, Section 6.1.1, Clause 3 states: "A Mastercard credit Card [issued in the United States] that also provides access to a debit account when a transaction occurs at a POS Terminal via PIN functionality must enable that Card to process any debitPIN POS transaction as a Maestro POS Transaction." But my Mastercard isn't a credit card that provides access to a debit account, it only provides access to a debit account. I've never heard of a credit card that also directly linked to a checking account.

[Anonymous]

Right? Not sure why, in this day in age, MasterCard still bothers with Maestro. They should just introduce Debit MasterCard globally. Most other debit networks have gone away in favour of Debit Visa (Switch, Laser) and Debit MasterCard. Even in Canada Interac is being paired with Visa Debit more and more. 

[Anonymous]

I remember reading something on FlyerTalk from someone who tried their debit card in the Netherlands and it didn't work. I forget if it was a MC though.

[UncleB]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

The plot thickens. I waded through the Mastercard Rules and found these tidbits which still make it confusing.

Chapter 12 of the MasterCard Rules, Section 5.10.1, Clause 7 states: "A Merchant [located in the EU or Norway] is not required to accept Maestro Cards as a condition of accepting Mastercard Cards, and vice versa" for cards issued within the EU and Norway. However as my card is not issued within the EU/Norway, the rules state that the above does not apply and instead Chapter 5, Section 5.10.1 applies which does not mention Maestro at all. 

But... maybe it might not matter as it might process as a Maestro debit, not Mastercard debit. Maybe. It doesn't clear anything but makes it more confusing. Chapter 15, Section 6.1.1, Clause 3 states: "A Mastercard credit Card [issued in the United States] that also provides access to a debit account when a transaction occurs at a POS Terminal via PIN functionality must enable that Card to process any debitPIN POS transaction as a Maestro POS Transaction." But my Mastercard isn't a credit card that provides access to a debit account, it only provides access to a debit account. I've never heard of a credit card that also directly linked to a checking account.

---

I'm sorry that I don't have the answer you're looking for, but I do want to mention that I once had a MasterCard credit card that was linked to my checking account.

The bank was AmSouth (which is now Regions), and I had a MasterCard with them as well as a checking account.  They linked my checking account to my credit card so that at ATMs I could use my MasterCard for checking account withdrawals.  It actually was great... I was able to leave my debit card at home without giving up ATM access. 

(Note that I tried to get this same arrangement with Wells Fargo a few months ago but they don't offer it.)

I don't know if the regulation you read is referring to the arrangement I had, but I'm mentioning it here to illustrate that at at some banks it is possible (or at least at one time it was).