Where to get a Visa Electron Card?

Is there any way to pay for such flights other than with a credit or debit card?

Abbey National for under 18's - I just checked that

I am fairly sure Barclays do electron and probably one or 2 others - they often offer either Solo or Electron.

so what *is* a visa electron if it is not a debit card ??

The Woolwich Card Saver account has an Electron card. Possibly Barclays offers an Electron card as well.

I believe Abbey offers one as well.

Not that I'm aware of.

A Visa Electron card is a debit card *without* the Visa Card Sign but with Visa Electron Sign.

So what is meant by "an extra fee if the flights are paid by a credit or debit card"?

indeed, so a debit card then !! not sure why you think using this card will save you charges ?/

I wasn't aware that the Halifax stopped doing Electron, they did do on their Cardcash account.

Woolwich and barclays both Do Electron as do Abbey.

Nat West do Solo, Not sure about the others.

Nick.

because it says so on their website!

But the OP said they charged extra for payment by credit or debit card - which I did think was odd.

We then went full circle confirming that a Visa Electron card is a debit card.

Its *supposed* to be an 'electronic use' only card, ie it was designed with the number printed rather than embossed on the card (so you couldn't use a clunk-click type old fashioned machine) and thus funds were only available if the card was read electronically and compared live with the issueing bank. You also were only supposed to be able to use it 'customer present' ie you could't use it over the phone (because it needed to be read obviuously).

This has been much eroded lately as just about all retailers have electonic terminals, and *lots* of retailer accept transactions over the phone/by internet. I think the later is allowed to happen because the card security number is usually requested as well.

"Sharky" wrote

Eh? - *Why* couldn't you use a "clunk-clunk" machine?

In those "good old days", I remember that even with embossed cards, the numbers often didn't come out very clearly - eg sometimes shown twice slightly apart - and so the shopworker often had to hand-write the numbers on afterwards with a pen.

They could just as easily copy the numbers by hand with an Electron card...