I am 72 and limited by ME.  Visited my mother in Ojai, California, and found that no one, apparently, had heard of Maestro, so couldn't get access to my NatWest account.  Their helpline didn't help, and it was only upon my return I learned that there were three places in Ojai which would honour Maestro.  NatWest did pay me some compensation, for being disabled and unable to access cash in a city 6,000 miles from home.  Now I am going to visit again, and I am unable to get that information again.  Maestro don't have any form of access to them, I get referred to my branch, they don't have the information but tell me it is constantly changing anyhow.  I don't know why NatWest insist on providing a card that isn't generally recognised in the US, and, oh, they also give Solo cards -   do you know any place that honours Solo?

The only cards to carry outside the UK are:

- American Express: possibly the best card as it is a charge card and not a credit card

- Visa: pretty much accepted everywhere in the world

- MasterCard: similar to Visa and almost as widely accepted

If you need access to cash, and you are staying with friends/family, just do a PayPal payment to their account and then withdraw it locally.

- Maestro/Solo/Electron are all really useless outside the UK and quite frankly are not much use inside the UK either! 

SHARK! 

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For every positive action, there's an equal and opposite government plan.

im afraid your wrong there shark,very few places now refuse solo and electron cards in the uk.

dont know about abroad as ive never gone abroad with my own card.

Its not outside UK but outside europe.

Visa electron and Maestro card are used as primary debit cards connected to your current account in most european countries. so no problems there.

Maestro is a debit card issuer owned by Mastercard (hence the similarity in logos). In principle a Maestro debit card can be used anywhere but in practice this is usually within Europe and Asia.

Regards the US there is a culture clash here. To buy goods in shops the preferred and oft-used method is cash. Cheques (checks) are accepted but the cheque guarantee card is unknown. Debit cards are a recent phenomenon; credit cards are far more-widely accepted.

The European retail banking system is actually far more developed than its' US counterpart and many here don't realise that.

I was born and grew up in the UK. I moved to Israel five years ago. My sister lives in Germany. There is not one place in Israel that I can use Maestro to make point of sales transactions. Nearly all international websites don't take Maestro. Some banks in Israel don't take Cirus at cash points but most do SOMETIMES.

Mastercard have a credit card and Debit Mastercard and had Maestro as their equivalent to Solo card. In some countries like India, it was the main debit brand. Mastercard bought Switch, Irish Laser Card and Eurocard and rebranded them all as Maestro. Within said countries it is like a Debit Mastercard but it uses the old domestic clearing system so you may find that one country that uses Maestro doesn't accept YOUR Maestro. Or that it is equivalent to a Solo card.

If Natwest haven't sent me a Debit card that uses either the Visa or Mastercard clearing systems by the next time I go back to the UK (I go yearly or sometimes every six months) then I'm moving banks and posting everywhere.

Also Note: The main Debit brand for Visa in the UK is Visa Debit. Electron is like Solo Card.

get a Visa debit card or a pre-paid card with Mastercard or Visa logo

on this website if you look at credit cards search they have a whole list of pre-paid cards.

A good story.

I have a prepaid Maestro card, and there are five bodies involved in it's issue and workings.

One is me, 2 - the card is a pre-paid 'Aspinal Foundation' issue. 3 - the issuing agent is 'M-Cube' who I contact by phone.

4 - the name behind the card is Newcastle Building Scociety. 5 - lastly the new 'Secure Code' is issued by MasterCard.

So, beware, anyone with a Maestro or MasterCard will not be able to pay for goods on-line without registering with Master

card 'Secure Code'. Do it now, as you can only do it through your card issuer, and do not forget your log-in details, or you will have one heck of a job to re-activate with a new set!

If you want a card for abroad, as our friend says, Visa is best, or a pre-paid MasterCard. No credit checks, but compare the charges, they are quite complex.

Allan W.