I thought it was a good idea to have have a megathread to post those articles which come up that will only get a couple of replies and don’t really need their own thread.
Obviously make your opinions known if it’s a bad idea mods and non mods.
9 Likes
To start off;
MasterCard is scrapping the Maestro brand.
4 Likes
1 Like
I for one already appreciate the existence of this thread
11 Likes
About time! No more cards issued after 2023 - and nudging issuers to move to Mastercard Debit.
Very good. Carry on, please 
5 Likes
This report is interesting. Maybe fewer new fintechs popping up next year then, maybe even a few of the smaller ones going? Nothing that would slow the bigger players down I don’t think.
2 Likes
This is major news, and hopefully will mean that Maestro-reliant countries will start accepting a wider range of cards instead of even just Mastercard Debit.
3 Likes
The Mastercard press release earlier was not showing in English for me.
Here’s the English version:
5 Likes
How long before we run out of 16 digit card numbers if 400millon maestro cards are transitioning to MasterCard 
1 Like
I believe Mastercard now have the ability to use card numbering beginning “2” as well as “5” (first digit, Major Industry Identifier?). Appreciate that not all of the range may be available, but should keep things moving for a while yet.
1 Like
That’ll be fun if merchants don’t keep on top of their BIN tables 
Thanks for the info though!
5 Likes
222100 to 272099, added to 50xxxx to 55xxxx, apparently - announced a few years ago but I’ve never yet encountered one.
But yes, as always it depends on system configurations being kept up to date - having had that task once in a previous life I know just how tricky that is… 
1 Like
This was previously discussed, but for Japan!
5 Likes
Yes! I thought I remembered having this conversation before 
So what exactly is the difference between Maestro and Debit Mastercard? Just the card number length?
I recall fd (I think) issuing Maestro a few years back and then moving away.
I know some cards like Solo/Electron couldn’t be used in places like filling stations (as you couldn’t guarantee the transaction amount before transaction completion etc).
Be good to have something to explain the various major types of card and differences, if someone has the time/inclination.
Payments systems have always interested me, just a pity I didn’t take a job in that area years ago when I could have.
Mind you, I remember Mondex so that’s how old I am!
1 Like
Maestro these days isn’t hugely different, it’s still a Mastercard technology but processed in a different way.
Mastercard cards (credit and debit) use a “dual message” system to complete a transaction (authorisation and presentment are separate processes). Maestro uses “single message” where everything happens at once, there is no separate presentment.
This means that Maestro is a bit like an online debit card, you can never go overdrawn with a Maestro card as all transactions have to be authorised “live” or it won’t be processed at all.
This is why they won’t work in certain situations, like pay at pump or potentially on a plane/train where the terminal may be offline.
There’s more detail here on the forum from people much more knowledgeable than me so search a bit and you should be able to find a few interesting posts on the topic.
I think the whole reason it was announced years ago was to make sure BIN tables could be updated well before the numbers were actually needed and brought into use. Like everything, Mastercard has likely been planning this for around 5 years already and this European phase-out is also fairly likely to just be a precursor to a global phase-out (although Maestro is still currently popular in South and Central America) so millions more numbers will be needed.
It does make sense to unify everything under their primary global brand and more flexible technology, though, especially as more payments are moving online. It should also have a nice side-effect benefit of improving acceptance for everyone.
3 Likes
PS: There’s more on all this in the following old thread.
3 Likes
Thought this was interesting , amex can accept incorrect cvv2 codes,
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1112057#c2
4 Likes
1 Like
1 Like