Metropol

Hi all, I've never understood what is it with Visa Electron and Solo cards that means you can't use them in certain places, but can in others. Why is this? We used to accept Solo cards where I work, but recently we've stopped allowing them. Is there any sort of security risk or something? Are they less secure? I'm confused.

The diffrence between an electon and solo card compared to the normal debit card is they have to be authorised and they check the account for avaiable funds before they authorise the transaction.

I'm not sure if that's true... I managed to get overdrawn on my Solo card when paying for food at a supermarket!

The shop I work at accepts them, but we authorise all cards (using one of those slowwwww Ingenico machines)...

Don't understand why trains don't take them (e.g. the trainline online - surely they could authorise them?!)... I have to use Maestro when booking trains which is irritating as it's not on my usual current account.

Thats wat I was told when I worked for a bank.
I would be happy to be corrected.
Would not be surprised if the bank told me a pack of lies- they did to thier customers.

nidave wrote:Thats wat I was told when I worked for a bank.
I would be happy to be corrected.
Would not be surprised if the bank told me a pack of lies- they did to thier customers.

You're probably right... Electron and Solo cards usually take an age to go through at work, but the supermarkets just don't seem to bother with authorisation. Find it slightly obscure that places such as Debenhams, Odeon etc don't take Electron/Solo when smaller shops manage fine. Also (not that it affects me) I've noticed many places take Solo but not Electron... We take them all, but not Evil Amex.

nodnirG kraM wrote:

Fireboy wrote:I'm not sure if that's true... I managed to get overdrawn on my Solo card when paying for food at a supermarket!

Well technically there are "funds" in the account - the bank will put you into un/authorised overdraft. If your account has no overdraft facilities then the Solo/Electron card will not allow the transaction.

But there is no overdraft... that's the weird thing. It did overdraw on Solo - not by much, just a few quid. It does say in the T&C that it's "impossible" to become overdraft on 'RightTrack', but my statement indicated otherwise...

I can tell you what has happened there.

Large supermarkets, in an effort to squeeze yet another penny of profit, have a "floor limit" on card transactions. Below a certain limit they don't dial up to check for funds, as it would cost them a few pence.

They shouldn't therefore allow Electron or Solo cards, but if they didn't they would run the risk of customers taking their business elsewhere. Only when the overnight "polls" take place do the transactions go to the bank. By then the customer will be saddled with a charge for having gone into an overdraft they don't have, plus a charge for the letter informing them of this.

You should write to the head office of the supermarket or even Watchdog. It is an outrageous state of affairs.

I think you can probably tell that I also have an Electron card.

On the old tills, we didn't accept Solo. I was told this was because the tills were so decrepid they didn't want to try adding anything else to them.

The new tills do accept it. Although they use the dreadfully SLOW chip and pin auth system.

Now with the old tills I'd occasionally be ased to get an auth code. Our floor limit is £50 which I can override with a security code, but otherwise I have to ring Streamline and get them to authorise it for me.

Amex was a pain in the arse.

Why is Amex a pain in the arse btw? What's so different about it?

Hymagumba wrote: Why is Amex a pain in the arse btw? What's so different about it?

They charge shops through the nose i.e. 2-3 times more. I dunno wether it's us or Barclaycard/BMS who don't accept them but we certainly refuse them, manager mentioned if we accepted Amex we'd have to do a min. card purchase of £10-15 as opposed to £5 to cover the costs.

On a kind-of-related note, I sometimes have problems when buying things online with my Switch/Maestro card... the issue number of my card is 0. Zero. But entering zero into some online transaction forms results in it thinking you haven't entered anything into it.

marksi wrote:On a kind-of-related note, I sometimes have problems when buying things online with my Switch/Maestro card... the issue number of my card is 0. Zero. But entering zero into some online transaction forms results in it thinking you haven't entered anything into it.

Phone up and say your card is cracked and they'll post you "issue 1".

*Ta-da*

Edit: Oh shite.