In Belgium the most common cards are dual branded Bancontact/Maestro cards. Every citizen has a least one of them and they also work for e-commerce. VISA/MasterCard cards are usually reserved for those who have an income and a good credit line. Due to high processing fees of other card schemes, they are often the only card supported in many stores. For example, the Colruyt-group -the largest retailer in Belgium-, only supports Bancontact cards. In the border regions I have seen Colruyt accept V Pay (Luxembourg) and/or Maestro (Netherlands) but not everywhere.
In Luxembourg the story is a little bit the different, the main card scheme is V Pay but it works only for chip+pin transactions. Maestro is generally accepted. Because there is a big international community it is also common to support VISA/MasterCard, the exception however are small stores/bars.
The last time I visited the Netherlands, the small business merchants only accepted Maestro or V Pay. In Germany it often says Girocard-only, but Maestro or V Pay seems to work as well. I have had many issues with VISA/MasterCard in Germany.
In general, a multi branded card with Maestro/Bancontact/Girocard/Dankort/Bancomat/VISA Electron/⊠would be a nice addition. Maybe instead of an additional MasterCard debit an multi-branded card like this for the premium offering?
An Vpay/Visa multi card is the most safe one, but Revolut has an agreement with MC.
An smartcard (Maestro and MC) is not practical (see one of the earlier posts)
Given that Revolutâs business model, and primary source of its revenue, is merchant fees for spending on the prepaid MasterCard, what incentive does Revolut have to issue Maestro cards, which have near-zero merchant fees?
Mastercard debit and Maestro fees are exact same. It would give them the same revenue, probably has not done it yet because their two issuers donât issue maestro cards and they have yet to issue a card on their own.
There are various possible reasons for that, terminal contracts that are cheaper if you just take maestro/vpay possibly, merchants that donât know the difference between debit and credit cards of the same brand, or merchants that donât want to accept credit cards as accepting mastercard debit your terminal is able to accept mastercard credit too, which as a bigger cut.
Credit cards in France are almost always debit cards (you are not really borrowing money when using them), so no real need for the banks to issue debit cards.
Ok I understand your point now. I always had Direct Debit personally beacause I donât want to spend money which is not mine in a sense. Thanks for clarification.
A Maestro Card would definitly be advantageous.
Iâm currently living in the Netherlands, and even though Iâm new to Revolut, I have to say that I was very sad when I noticed that a lot of merchants around here do not accept MasterCard (even a debit one).
Luckly I have a Maestro anyway, itâs actually the card I use to topup my Revolut Card, but this makes me âsplitâ the payments between the 2 cards, instead of using just one card for my day by day payments.
Very anoyingâŠ
I would definitly go for a Maestro Revolut Card if this was available
Please can we have a Maestro card option, as others have said in the Netherlands it is absolute nightmare.
I havenât found a regular supermarket that accepts anything other Maestro. The exception are small convenience branches at airports or train stations, but they are very expensive and only stock grab and go items.
Local restaurants and bars only accept Maestro, again exceptions are larger chains or tourist spots, but then you pay the tourist markup!
Office vending machines or top up for cashless payment cards in company canteens similarly only accept Maestro. Thankfully I have trusting colleagues, cash in exchange for the use of their card when I want a snack or to top up.
For day to day living in the Netherlands Maestro is essential.
@windozer, you are giving incorrect information.
For a merchant in the Netherlands, Maestro and Mastercard transaction usually have different costs. For instance at the largest bank in the Netherlands (ING), Maestro costs about 5 cent per transaction by default, and Mastercard around 1.9-2.9%. So for instance a typical 100 euro supermarket transaction would cost 2 euro for Mastercard and 0.05 euro for Maestro. This is not the same price.
See for instance here: https://www.ing.nl/zakelijk/betalen/geld-ontvangen/pin-betalingen-ontvangen/index.html
Even if tomorrow all fees would become the same, you will not magically have every retailer in the country switch their acceptance policy.
The reality is that everyone in the Netherlands needs a Maestro card.
so their biggest package of that bank would for a mastercard debit charge same as maestro, why it only does accept them in highest package I donât know.
