Can someone please tell me how to get an Electron card? Airlines and railway companies don't charge an extra fee for payment by Electron card but they do for payment by debit and credit card.
By the way, what is the logic for this discrimination?
Ask your bank to downgrade your existing card. Join a bank with an account that offers Visa Electron. Most banks don't offer it now.
It is a 'credit' card, but it does not offer credit, you are not allowed to go into debt with it, you must have the full funds for a transaction in your account if you wish to use the card.
"nonanon" wrote
I thought it was a 'debit' card, but I could be wrong on that.
They're also unique (?) in that they do not have embossed details on them, ensuring that they can only be used on electronic processing machines which can read the chip built into them.
John.
Not entirely true...I've had occasions where the machine couldn't read the chip, so the shop staff have swiped the magnetic strip instead... But you're right about no embossed text...
It is a pre-authorisation debit card. An ordinary debit card can be using without actually checking funds are in your bank. For example if you purchase something on a plane, they don't actually access your bank to do the transaction, the terminal is hooked up to a computer on the ground and the transactions downloaded then. There's very little justification for any company charging for Electron cards because the charges are low and risk negligible. Some companies like Ryanair used them because the law was changed a few years ago which meant that all charges had to be included in the advertised fare. Ryanair got around including the debit/credit card by offering at least one payment that there wasn't a charge, hence the Electron option. If you want the card to use with Ryanair, you're too late, too many people applied for them to use with Ryanair, so the lovely Mr.O'Dreary has this year changed it to a prepaid/top up Mastercard.
You can get a pre-paid debit card for travelling from the Post Office called the Travel Money Card. These cards are Visa Electron.
- Paul
But they are not Mastercard Pre-pay, so no good for Ryanair.
It's the Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard, and it's yours without credit checks."
In message , Alasdair wrote
It's so the airlines can advertise a low fare. If customers choose to pay by other means they will have to pay an extra charge. In reality the lower fare wouldn't be available at all if everyone paid by Electron card.
That's not an Electron Card, it is however what you now need to book a Ryanair flight without any additional card processing fees from Ryanair. There may however be fees from the card issuer.
What he means is that you can't use the manual machines to take a carbon copy impression of the card, however I haven't seen one of those for about
12 years now.
Slightly OT, but if your railway company is charging a card fee or a booking fee then change to one that doesn't!
Theo
Nothing stopping people from writing the details on the form by hand.
Apart from the "ELECTRONIC USE ONLY" thing under the signature strip on the back of the card - for an Abbey Electron card. It may be in a different place on other banks cards, my old Woolwich one had it down the front left hand side of the card.
Please note that Santander are not issuing any new Electron cards - mine will be replaced with a Visa Debit on expiry. Woolwich is now Barclays, and the Barclays account that replaced my Woolwich one didn't have any sort of debit card facility on it.
Christ, does anywhere still use one of those?
Why do you think? Go on, i'll give you ten seconds to consider why there is no fee from the retailer to use an electron card but there is for other debit and credit cards.
Still used as "fallback" machines for if and when the electronic terminals go t*ts up, i once had to use one for about a week in a shop i used to run. Authorisations are completed via telephone..
That was with Natwest's Steamline system.
Crikey, I haven't seen one for years now...
Mostly correct, except that he didn't change it because too many people applied for them, but rather because they are being phased out.
I'm not sure if any new ones are being issued now, but if they are, it won't be for long.
The prepaid mastercards are actually much easier to obtain than electron cards.
Where did you see this? I have a bank account with Santander (09/01/27 sortcode) and got a Electron card. This will be great as some websites dont take Electron cards.
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