RIP loose change: we now use cashless payments more than notes and coins | TechRadar
http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of- ... ns-1294591

I want to use my credit card in taxis...

I tried to pay for a drink in a Costa in town on Monday, but their payment system was broken. It had locked up and they could not restart it. I had no analogue means of payment. They gave me the drink for free, but they could easily have told me to go away.

Cash works because there is no electricity or computers in play.

There have been rumours that the German government want to go cashless, but that will be a struggle as a lot of people still use cash for most things. Electronic is often more expensive.

I bought a new Velux window for the roof this week. It cost 569€ cash on delivery or 600€ with credit or debit card. I paid cash on delivery - and that was from an internet shop!

Germans are still very loathe to use credit cards in general. Having debt (other than a mortgage) was seen as a disgrace and credit cards are generally linked directly to your current account and the complete balance is automatically paid off at the end of the month, so there is no real advantage to using one - you don't even get the extra insurance and other benefits that UK card holders expect, unless you pay for a gold card.

Generally, if something is under 50€ most people will pay cash, if it is over 50€ they will use their debit cards - there are times I will use it for 10 - 20€ purchases, when I haven't had a chance to get to the bank, or I am buying something from our joint account. Cash is more convenient; if I want to pop to the shops and I don't have the money on me, I can borrow a couple of Euros from my wife, likewise I can give the kids a couple of Euros to buy sweets etc. In fact, if you go cashless, how will kids be able to buy anything? You have to be at least 16 to get a debit card here, so how will an eight year old be able to give out his pocket money on sweets and comics?

I think one of the big reasons Germany is looking at a cashless society is to help reduce "Schwarzarbeit" or black labour / moonlighting, where a tradesman will do a job cash-in-hand and it doesn't go through the books, so it is cheaper for both parties, but the Government loses out on tax.

Just investigated EC-card

1. EC is an obsolete check-guarantee system that was abandoned in 2002
2. Most card-equiped shops in Germany only accept Girocard/EC
3. Pure Girocard/EC cards only work in Germany
4. You can only get a Girocard/EC card from a German bank
5. You can (pretty much) only get a German bank account if you're resident, have a German credit history or visit Germany to be identified.

So, because the Germans absolutely had to have their own special system (even if it's wrong and non-SEPA compliant), you can only pay for things in Germany if you're a German resident. If you're a tourist expecting Germany to be in the same millennium as the rest of us, you're screwed.

Dear Germany,

My Visa card works in most card-equipped shops in Zambia and Uganda.

Grow up.

Regards,
The rest of the planet

In 1992, Eurocard International N.V., Eurocheque International C.V. and Eurocheque International Holding N.V. merged into a single company, Europay International S.A., and were relocated to Waterloo, Belgium. This location also housed the Europe, Middle-East and Africa region of MasterCard International, and the seat of the Eurocard-MasterCard joint-venture, Maestro International.

In 2002, Europay International and MasterCard International merged. The name Europay disappeared, and the new organisation was later renamed MasterCard Worldwide, with the headquarters in Waterloo renamed MasterCard Europe.

In 2008 Eurocard was taken over by the Swedish Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken.

Eurocard has always been the dominant brand in Central European countries, more specifically in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. It lagged behind Visa in Southern European countries, such as Spain and France.

Acceptance mark

Today, the Eurocard name exists in combination with the MasterCard acceptance mark as a product name. This means that the Eurocard name is still used on a card, although only the MasterCard logo is displayed at locations which accept MasterCard cards. The Eurocard logo is not used any more, as the acceptance mark is discontinued and merged into MasterCard. However, the use of Eurocard as a brand for MasterCard credit cards is limited to Scandinavian countries and the Baltic countries. In other former Eurocard markets, such as the German-speaking countries, this brand was fully replaced by the MasterCard brand.

Maestro is a multi-national debit card service owned by MasterCard that was founded in 1992. Maestro cards are obtained from associate banks and can be linked to the card holder's current account, or they can be prepaid cards. The cardholder presents the card at the point of sale (POS) and this is swiped through the terminal by the assistant or the customer or inserted into a chip and PIN device. The payment is authorized by the card issuer to ensure that the cardholder has sufficient funds in their account to make the purchase and the cardholder confirms the payment by either signing the sales receipt or entering their 4 to 6-digit PIN.

Within the EU and certain other countries, Maestro is MasterCard's main debit brand.

In the United Kingdom, the former Switch debit card system was re-branded as Maestro. Underneath the branding, however, the system was still the old Switch one and the cards were still fundamentally Switch. In 2011, MasterCard aligned UK Domestic Maestro (the former Switch) with the standard international Maestro proposition, ending its status as a separate card scheme. This change also led to the discontinuation of the Solo (debit card). In January 2009 First Direct and HSBC discontinued the use of Maestro card, issuing Visa Debit cards to new customers and a gradual roll-out throughout 2009 to existing customers. In September of the same year, the British arms of the National Australia Bank, being the Clydesdale Bank and the Yorkshire Bank, started the process of replacing the Maestro card with a Debit MasterCard for their current accounts, except for the Readycash and Student accounts, for which the Maestro card continues to be issued. Likewise, in the same month the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (Europe's largest debit card issuer which includes the NatWest, Coutts and Ulster Bank brands) switched from Maestro to Visa Debit, a process that took two years to complete. This effectively meant that only a few smaller UK banks would be issuing Maestro cards. However, in 2013 Bank of Ireland (UK) launched a new range of current accounts in Great Britain in partnership with the Post Office, and these come with Maestro debit cards.

My card worked fine in Italy, France and Belgium last time I was traveling. Only the UK didn't accept them, because the British Maestro card system is incompatible with the EU Maestro system. It is a chip and pin debit card system and the newer cards also support NFC payment. But old habits die hard and most still call it an EC card.

In 2007, Zentraler Kreditausschuss introduced "Girocard" as a common name for electronic cash and the German ATM network. Girocard purports to be SEPA-compliant, even though cards are only issued and accepted within Germany.

Ah yes but the German EC system (now called Girocard) is separate from the Maestro system.



That's why the Germans cards now have to come with both the EC and Maestro systems.

I haven't seen a Girocard since around 2003, all my accounts (Sparkasse and Deutsche Bank) have been Maestro and they are accepted everywhere.