The distinction between “balance” and “available balance” is actually very important when charging interest on overdrafts or credit cards, and is something I’m pushing for Monzo to surface (for the readers at home, charging interest or other charges on non-finalised transactions is illegal as they can still be reversed or changed). Since Monzo only show the “available balance” (after authorisations deducted) this means that there are situations where you have no idea if/when you’re going to get charged overdraft. There are two situations I’ve come across where this has actually been an issue for me:
Pre-ordering from certain international retailers. I’ve talked about this a lot over on Pre-ordering authorising the full amount months in advance and it’s interesting that CDJapan get 30 days of pre-auth while UK retailers get 7 days (I don’t know why this is).
Double authorisations from Amazon UK. I’ve recently had issues with Amazon sending duplicate authorisations to my card where only the latter charges would get finalised, but I still have up to a week of extra charges showing that will never finalise. Since Monzo treat pending transactions as gospel, I had a negative balance for a few days and was not really sure whether I was actually overdrawn or not. I’ve been in discussion over email with Monzo about this and had the older Amazon charges manually reversed so I have a more reliable balance again, and hopefully the devs (maybe even yourself) will be advised that this balance and/or a list of pending transactions is actually quite important to be accessible for those who use an overdraft.
I hope that makes sense.
EDIT: Oh yeah, fun side note: Monzo obfuscate the “balance” when you do balance checks on ATMs as well. Both balances displayed on the ATM are the “available balance” after authorisations are included.
Oh, it turns out there’s a mode of VISA Debit where it requires online authorisations for everything, used as a sort of alternative to VISA Electron. But in such cases it’s not quite as safe as VISA Electron’s single-message system, as they could always like, actually take out more than was authorised later, right?
This is less a mode and more a card profile configuration; you can do similar with Debit Mastercard where you tell the card that all authorizations must be done online (etc), and indeed this is how prepaid cards (including the former Monzo ones!) work.
Both single and dual message systems offer ways for acquirers to “force post” transactions to a cardholder, but the acquirer normally takes on more chargeback risk when they do so
Hmm. So, yesterday I got myself my VISA Electron (because it lacks embossing and therefore goes well with IC card stickers~) and today I used it for the first time. But I notice that, like my VISA Debit, recent transactions are just “reservations”. Is it really single-message?
Not convinced there’s a credible case for Maestro for a GBP current account. Am I missing something or is this just to make occasional trips to (mostly) the Netherlands easier? Are there prepaid Maestro cards that might be better for that purpose?
I suppose what I’m saying is that for a UK based GBP account Maestro is always going to be a niche requirement. I know that one or two of you on here really want one, but I think the economics of it (it costs banks what, around a fiver for a new card?) and the drawbacks (online only, secondary card for occasional trips abroad) mean that it’s probably not viable.
That’s not to say that folk shouldn’t ask for one if they really really want it - just that I think it’s always going to be a difficult ask.
(Of course, if someone offered me a second card for free with a different card scheme, then great. But as I say, unlikely. But all in, I’d rather MasterCard focus on fixing MasterCard debit/Maestro interoperability, I think).
Maybe I misunderstood your point. I was referring to N26 issuing maestro specifically.
Here in Portugal yes, all cards are dual, and about 95% of places will accept Maestro, MasterCard and Visa. The other 5% will only accept Multibanco.
Multibanco still has a lot of nice features compared to MC/Visa like not having a pre authorized amount locked in the card for days after using an unmanned petrol station
Mastercard is slowly phasing out Maestro in favour of MasterCard debit and banks here that issued maestro are transitioning to MasterCard. Isn’t the same happening in the Netherlands?
I think that’s the long term plan. Quite how long it’ll take though, who knows? Anecdotally, they seem to be getting there in Germany , but in the Netherlands , not too much.
Yep, slowly MasterCard pushes back Maestro but still, many places (especially ticket machines) are accepting only Maestro (like Berlin Airport DB ticket machines). You can pay Maestro or Cash. Not having any of them? Well…You got a problem.
Germans seems to be lazy when it comes for switching to new banking tech but also many German Banks like Santander are issuing Maestro cards to their customers.
Well, if Santander in Germany is anything like Santander here in Portugal, it should be the worst bank around by a mile. There are other banks that have clumsy processes and are incompetent, but Santander joins that with a genuine desire to screw over costumers in any way they can get away with, tough recently here in Portugal they finally switched from maestro to MasterCard, not that it makes a difference since acceptance is the same
I really want to explore this, the biggest catch being…
This. However:
When used in person, it should make no functional difference most of the time.
Some edge cases here include airplanes and TfL.
Mastercard has a department dedicated to yelling at merchants who aren’t EMV- or network compliant.
Out of curiosity, which companies are you thinking of?
I’ve seen some US cards which use both credit and debit (debit is always single-message in the US), but never a mastercard/maestro (debit/debit, multi/single) or equivalent hybrid. Maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough.
I think it was dutch bank Bunq that did it with their one card.
Bank of Montreal used to do it on their debit cards (Essentially 3 networks in one card, Interac (for domestic usage only), Maestro and Debit MasterCard (for non Canadian usage only). They dropped the Maestro as it was buggy as hell (terminals were often ignoring the application order preference), especially when trying to use it in the US. If you really want a Maestro card, they’ll just issue you a separate card.
Even just the dual Interac and MasterCard/Visa cards in Canada can sometimes be problematic.
This is probably a bit too expensive of an idea, but theoretically a debit card could have a tiny physical switch on it to choose which application it presents.
You click the button, if you want it to use it as a credit card and then another button to use it as a Tim Hortons card. The magstripe is also dynamic, so the security numbers change each time the button is pressed so it can’t be cloned (and the magstripe is also dead when no button has been pressed). Unfortunately, I’ve had friends who have the card and it stops working every 6 to 12 months and they have to order a new card.
Here in Portugal virtually all cards are at least dual, usually with the Portuguese Multibanco as well as one of Maestro, MasterCard or Visa. In compliance with EU rules, you always get a prompt at the terminal to choose which one you want to use. Some cards take advantage of it by being a credit/debit card, usually with Multibanco being tied to a checking account and MC or Visa tied to a credit line.
There are cards that are debit/debit, credit/credit or credit/debit.
Some cards have 5 or 6 applications, something along the lines of one for credit, one for debit, one for credit paying that purchase in 3 months without interest, then maybe another for paying in 6 months, then maybe another for deferred debit at the end of the month, you get the idea
As I said, virtually all cards here are at least dual and they aren’t at all buggy. Never heard of a single problem with it
, but in the Netherlands 
, not too much.