Can you release a Maestro Card for Revolut? In Germany or Belgium, you can not pay with Revolut MasterCard anywhere.
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Hi @tcu97,
Thank you for your suggestion.
We’ll take it on board.
Can you please let us know where you couldn’t use your card in Gremany or Belgium?
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This is indeed an issue in some countries in Europe. Not just in Germany or Belgium, but also in the Netherlands Maestro is much more common then Mastercard for debit card payments. Especially smaller stores don’t accept Mastercard in order to avoid high transaction fees. This severely limits the amount of places where we can use Revolut. An extra Maestro card would solve this problem.
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Wow that’s weird ; MasterCard is one of the most accepted card in the world with VISA. Here, in France it’s the exact opposite, Maestro is nearly accepted nowhere (with VISA card VPay) where MasterCard and VISA classic cards are. 
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Maestro is more common in Germany. In Germany, the MaestroCard is the most issued card because the transaction fees are lower. So some supermarkets and petrol station does not accept MasterCard but Maestro or girocard (German Debit Card System).
This extends to Austria and BeNeLux.
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That’s also true in the Netherlands. When we transferred from the national payment system PIN to an European payment system, Mastercard/Visa was not an option due to the higher transaction fees. MC/Visa fees can be as high as 1-2% while the PIN fees were just 5 cents or less making it a very cheap and efficient payment system. Using Maestro the merchants here can still enjoy low transaction fees and at the same time join the European payment system SEPA and support international payment standards. MC/Visa is still accepted, but not everywhere since the merchant has to agree to bear the higher fees.
This might change though in the future since the EU is putting a cap on MC/Visa payment fees, making them much more cheaper.
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The problem is that when you want to pay with revolut in a shop does not accept MasterCard, you have to withdraw money. This is a very expensive way to pay with revolut. An optional MaestroCard could increase the acceptance of revolut
Here are some shops dont accept Revolut Mastercard but maestro:
- expert
- Edeka
- bft (petrol stations)
- BurgerKing
- some McDonalds
- some restaurants (they only accept girocard or Maestro)
- Hofer Austria
- many DIY markets
- Albert heijn markets in Nederland
- penny in Germany (maestro and girocard)
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Very strange. Here in Bulgaria the only card that is not accepted almost anywhere is Amex. VISA and Mastercard accepted everywhere.
In Dk, you have to pay an additional fee for Mastercard transactions. Maestro Debit card transactions are often free
No MasterCard support. Only Maestro or Visa Electron
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Maestro is accepted almost everywhere in France, yet the French banks almost don’t issue Maestro cards anymore.
In Germany, banks issues Maestro Debit Cards. This extends to Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Nederlands and Switzerland.
In this countrys, you have a large acceptance if you have a Maestro Debit card
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Not Luxembourg. They use V-Pay. I live in Belgium, it’s true that all banks issue Maestro, but you can equally pay with Visa or Mastercard almost everywhere.
A Smartcard with Mastercard and Maestro combined would be better.
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All major UK banks have moved away from issuing Maestro to issuing Visa Debit Cards, only a few smaller banks now issue them. The UK Cards Association suggest this is due to the superior consumer protection offered by Visa. Apparently you can only get a refund with Maestro if you ordered goods from an overseas website and they didn’t arrive. Visa uses a ‘debit chargeback’ scheme, by which you can claim money back if your goods are lost, damaged or the service was not delivered, up to a limitless amount.
As a UK resident this wouldn’t encourage me to want to change to Maestro.
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From a consumer perspective Visa and also Mastercard may be a better choice because of the superior consumer protection. But the increased protection comes at a cost with transaction fees of Mastercard and Visa being much higher than the Maestro fees. Merchants in countries like the Netherlands and Germany are apparently not used to these kind of fees and prefer Maestro over Visa/Mastercard. The EU will have to limit the maximum transaction fees for electronic transactions much more for Maestro to lose its edge over Visa/Mastercard.
The idea is not to change the mastercard into a maestro card. A Card with MasterCard AND Maestro (Smartcard) or an optional Maestro card in addition to the Revolut MasterCard could be the solution.
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Yes, I would even gladly pay a one-off fee of five or ten quid for the added convenience of a contactless Maestro card.
The merchant fee difference is negligible but old habits die hard. Dutch, Luxembourgish, Swiss and German Maestro cards are usually not e-commerce enabled so the local banks can charge another annual fee for the provision of a credit card (even though most people just need access to the payment network and not the credit itself).
A combined Mastercard/Maestro card also comes with its own share of problems (rejection by merchants etc).
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@Fassbrause: That’s true. Some merchants reject smartcards like the Fidor SmartCard in Germany. An optional contactless MaestroCard for DK AT DE NL… Revolut could be a possibility to get a MaestroCard when you live in a country where MaestroCards are not available.
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