Solo (debit card)

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Solo
Solo (debit card).png
Solo logo
Product type Debit card
Owner MasterCard
Country United Kingdom
IntroducedJuly 1997
DiscontinuedMarch 2011
Related brands Maestro, Switch
An HSBC Solo debit card issued in Britain in the end of 2007 HSBC Solo.gif
An HSBC Solo debit card issued in Britain in the end of 2007

Solo was a debit card in the United Kingdom introduced as a sister to the then existing Switch. (Later merged with the Maestro debit card brand of the Mastercard corporation) Launched on 1 July 1997, by the Switch Card Scheme, [1] it was designed for use on deposit accounts, as well as by customers who did not qualify for a Switch card (or, later, Maestro card) on current accounts, such as teenagers. The Solo card scheme was decommissioned permanently on 31 March 2011. [2] [3]

Contents

Operation

Solo was issued as a multifunction cash card by NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland to customers over the age of 11 and by HSBC Bank (formerly Midland Bank) to customers over the age of 13; however, NatWest Group and HSBC both then issued Visa Debit cards in place of Solo. [4] Like its main rival, Visa Electron, Solo cards required all transactions receive electronic authorisation from the issuing bank.

Such authorisation would not be given if there were insufficient cleared funds in the cardholder's account. Solo cards were linked to the Switch processing system (later re-branded as Maestro); however, some merchants differentiated between Solo and Switch through their numbering scheme to prevent under 18s from purchasing online.

Due to their availability to minors, they could be used as a simple age vetting mechanism; for example, when online grocers Ocado accepted Solo, they refused to sell razor blades or alcoholic beverages to those paying with the card. [5] Solo cards were also issued to people with a bad credit history to reduce the liability for the issuing bank.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

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EFTPOS Type of electronic payment system

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Charge card Card that enables the cardholder to make purchases

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EMV Smart payment card standard

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Laser (debit card)

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Switch (debit card) Defunct British debit card

Switch was a debit card brand in the United Kingdom from 1988 until 2002. It was then merged with Maestro, which is owned by MasterCard.

Maestro (debit card) Debit card

Mastercard Maestro is a brand of debit cards and prepaid cards owned by Mastercard that was introduced in 1991. Maestro debit cards are obtained from associate banks and are linked to the cardholder's savings account, current account or any of several other types of accounts, while prepaid cards do not require a bank account to operate. Maestro cards can be used at point of sale (POS) and ATMs. Payments are made by swiping cards through the payment terminal, insertion into a chip and PIN device or by a contactless reader. The payment is authorized by the card issuer to ensure that the cardholder has sufficient funds in their account to make the purchase. The cardholder then confirms the payment by either signing the sales receipt or entering their 4- to 6-digit PIN, except with contactless transactions below a specified amount for which no further verification is required.

Visa Electron Debit card

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NETS (company)

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Credit card Card for financial transactions from a line of credit

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Girocard Interbank network and debit card service

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RuPay(portmanteau of Rupee and Payment) is an Indian multinational financial services and payment service system, conceived and launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on 26 March 2012. It was created to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) vision of establishing a domestic, open and multilateral system of payments. RuPay facilitates electronic payment at all Indian banks and financial institutions. NPCI maintains ties with Discover Financial, JCB to enable RuPay card scheme to gain international acceptance.

V Pay is a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) debit card for use in Europe, issued by Visa Europe. It uses the EMV chip and PIN system and may be co-branded with various national debit card schemes such as the German Girocard or Italy's PagoBancomat.

References

  1. "It's time to go Solo", About Solo. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012.
  2. Barclaycard BIN Ranges and Rules Archived 2011-06-30 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Changes to Solo Card Scheme". Archived from the original on 14 March 2011.
  4. "RBS Switches To Visa for Its Debit Cards", The Wall Street Journal, 17 September 2008.
  5. "What payment methods do you accept?", Ocado help.