I’ve been using Revolut for over a week in Argentina and it’s been G-R-A-N-D. Alas, today my card was refused several times in some coffee shops (low amount payments, ARS 60, something like EUR 3) and the tickets show ERROR TYPE 30 FORMAT ERROR. I’ve been able to pay larger amounts later though
What’s the drama here?
So far no problems in supermarkets, etc… but in smaller shops I can’t swipe and/or use my chip - they have to enter the credit no. manually, plus expiry date and CVV. I don’t try the contactless option because a) I have deactivated it and b) barely no-one uses it in Argentina.
It either identified the Revolut debit card as a Maestro card (which it isn’t. It’s a Mastercard card. Mastercard owns Maestro but it is an entirely separate network to Mastercard.) or is a payment terminal that only accepts Maestro cards.
It probably has nothing to do with the issue, but are you using one of the old PaySafe cards, or the newer Wirecard-issued cards?
It is a Wirecard-issued Revolut card, and as regards the Maestro/Mastercard
issue, we then paid with a Mastercard issued by an Argentine bank and it
was alright. I tend to find this problem whenever the payment system asks
the merchant to choose a specific type of account (i.e. savings or current)
Argentina is still a bit of a tricky country for any kind of transaction.
By choosing current account it has usually worked, except the four or five
times I have had this Format issue.
In the UK, I’ve always clicked ‘savings’ instead of ‘current account’ for ATM withdrawals. Never been prompted to pick for payments at payment terminals.
Thank you for your reply - now the issue here is that I am speaking of electronic, POS-made, transactions, and not cash withdrawals at ATMs (which I have encountered no problems whatsoever, apart from the 105 ARS compulsory fee).
Yes. But still. In the US for example, choose „credit“ at a POS terminal if it asks you credit/debit. despite Revolut being a debit card. „It‘s always credit with international cards“ the guy in that shop in New York told me.
Hey!
The signature and ID number is a standard procedure in Argentina, so it is done regardless of your type of card. The Maestro circuit-reading, yes, that happens some days… always carry a back up visa/mastercard in addition to your revolut, may that happen.