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Ironically, an EC card these days is just a MasterCard. They used to be called EC (EuroCheque) card, but rebranded in 2007 when MasterCard was ousted from the s
by Cu3PO42 5y ago
Ironically, an EC card these days is just a MasterCard. They used to be called EC (EuroCheque) card, but rebranded in 2007 when MasterCard was ousted from the system. MC kept the brand rights and didn't do anything with them for a decade. Meanwhile people kept using the old name. Now, however, MC started using the brand for some debit MasterCards, which can lead to great confusion by unsuspecting merchants.
That said, for many shops it was either girocard and cash or just cash only. Merchants just weren't willing to eat the fees associated with other card schemes.
Things have changed, though. The EU has capped the interchange fees of four party debit and credit cards to 0.2% and 0.3% respectively and now most shops tend to accept MasterCard and Visa as well.
- amaccuish 5y agoIt's not just a MasterCard. There are still shops that will accept Maestro and not MasterCard. Further, some girocards, like mine, a V-Pay cards, Visa's equivalent, and not co-branded with Maestro.
- Cu3PO42 5y agoMaestro is disjoint from MasterCard, this is correct. But it's also unrelated to what I said. You're right that many girocards are co-branded with Maestro and not MasterCards. However, they are not "EC cards". Those cards that actually use the "ec" brand (rather than girocard) are proper debit MasterCards. You can see this on MasterCards German website [0]. Some banks are also using that branding to issue cards [1]. Beyond that, there are some girocards which are co-branded not with Maestro, but with MasterCard proper [2], although that is also unrelated to my previous statement. [0] https://www.mastercard.de/de-de/mastercard-fuer-sie/finden-sie-eine-karte/debit-mastercard.html https://www.mastercard.de/de-de/mastercard-fuer-sie/finden-s... [1] https://www.consorsfinanz.de/banking-service/kontakt/geld-einzahlen/Grafiken/MasterCardNr.jpg https://www.consorsfinanz.de/banking-service/kontakt/geld-ei... [2] https://www.it-finanzmagazin.de/girocard-mit-co-badge-mastercard-was-die-neue-sparkassen-card-kann-und-wann-sie-kommt-103631/ https://www.it-finanzmagazin.de/girocard-mit-co-badge-master...