Warning - New Clydesdale Bank MasterCard Debit Cards

MoneySavingMuppet

I'm trying to book flights with Ryanair. As a couple with 3 children, getting charged £50 for the privilege of paying by VISA is outrageous.

On this website's advice, I applied for a FAIRFX pre-paid card. All was going well until it came time to put in my payment details. They charge for using credit cards. "I know!" I thought, "I'll pay with my Switch card". But, oh, my Switch card is not a Switch card anymore! It's a MasterCard Debit card.

The only option in the drop down menu on their site for MasterCard doesn't distinguish between credit and debit cards. There is a fee regardless.

But that can't be right, surely? My MC debit card is linked directly to my current account. It's for use in ATMs and as a cheque guarantee card. I shouldn't be charged as if I'm using credit. It's basically electronic cash, isn't it?

Or am I being stupid?

I've emailed FairFX to see what I can do about this but would be interested to know if anyone else has this problem. I'll post their reply in due course.

Toe-Jam

MoneySavingMuppet wrote: »

I'm trying to book flights with Ryanair. As a couple with 3 children, getting charged £50 for the privilege of paying by VISA is outrageous.

On this website's advice, I applied for a FAIRFX pre-paid card. All was going well until it came time to put in my payment details. They charge for using credit cards. "I know!" I thought, "I'll pay with my Switch card". But, oh, my Switch card is not a Switch card anymore! It's a MasterCard Debit card.

The only option in the drop down menu on their site for MasterCard doesn't distinguish between credit and debit cards. There is a fee regardless.

But that can't be right, surely? My MC debit card is linked directly to my current account. It's for use in ATMs and as a cheque guarantee card. I shouldn't be charged as if I'm using credit. It's basically electronic cash, isn't it?

Or am I being stupid?

I've emailed FairFX to see what I can do about this but would be interested to know if anyone else has this problem. I'll post their reply in due course.

Send the money to Fairfx By bank transfer, if you do it in the morning it will be loaded onto your Fairfx card by the evening same day. Provided your bank has faster payments.

Olipro

scgf wrote: »

Just checked what the till receipt says about my Metro Bank Mastercard Debit card:

Card Type: Mcard retail dr

There is further info like AID, APP PSN, Cryptogram, MID and EFT but I haven't a clue what these mean.

AID is the Application ID selected from the chip, each card organisation sets out the appropriate AIDs for each card type.

APP PSN is an extension of the PAN, it's generally zero unless you've had multiple cards issued with the same PAN, which generally only large companies do.

Cryptogram is the Transaction Certificate; this value can be used to verify that the transaction was performed against the real card.

the MID is most likely the Merchant's ID

EFT relates to the identity of the terminal

inniminiman

At last, the Yorkshire bank account is closed and the debit card that thinks its a credit card has been sliced up! Moved to co-op bank in the end, they handled the direct debits transfer and all that, plus we get a far better rate on the savings account. Closed the YB account just in time to avoid the increase in monthly fees too. Apparently most of the retailers who get the card wrong have been pressured into improving their reference files, but with the Mastercard debit card number range slap bang in the middle of the rest of their credit card numbers it is no surprise that the problems occur. Still waiting for YB to reply to my July letter, and give me the callback from the branch that the contact centre promised in September, but somehow I don't think that's going to happen. Never mind, done and dusted and off!

Wendy5704

I have just received a mastercard debit from yb as my maestro card has expired. Why have they done this? Are they phasing maestro cards out?

PaulW922

Yes they are - most banks have gone to Visa debit (HSBC, RBS, NatWest) others CB/YB and the new Metro Bank are issuing Mastercard

PaulW922

MoneySavingMuppet wrote: »

I'm trying to book flights with Ryanair. As a couple with 3 children, getting charged £50 for the privilege of paying by VISA is outrageous.

On this website's advice, I applied for a FAIRFX pre-paid card. All was going well until it came time to put in my payment details. They charge for using credit cards. "I know!" I thought, "I'll pay with my Switch card". But, oh, my Switch card is not a Switch card anymore! It's a MasterCard Debit card.

The only option in the drop down menu on their site for MasterCard doesn't distinguish between credit and debit cards. There is a fee regardless.

But that can't be right, surely? My MC debit card is linked directly to my current account. It's for use in ATMs and as a cheque guarantee card. I shouldn't be charged as if I'm using credit. It's basically electronic cash, isn't it?

Or am I being stupid?

I've emailed FairFX to see what I can do about this but would be interested to know if anyone else has this problem. I'll post their reply in due course.

Doubtless it is too late this time, but in future, you need to select the 'prepaid Mastercard' option on the Ryanair website. In reality this is Ryanair loading on extra charges - not many people have prepaid Mastercards

MoneySavingMuppet

MoneySavingMuppet wrote: »

I'm trying to book flights with Ryanair. As a couple with 3 children, getting charged £50 for the privilege of paying by VISA is outrageous.

On this website's advice, I applied for a FAIRFX pre-paid card. All was going well until it came time to put in my payment details. They charge for using credit cards. "I know!" I thought, "I'll pay with my Switch card". But, oh, my Switch card is not a Switch card anymore! It's a MasterCard Debit card.

The only option in the drop down menu on their site for MasterCard doesn't distinguish between credit and debit cards. There is a fee regardless.

But that can't be right, surely? My MC debit card is linked directly to my current account. It's for use in ATMs and as a cheque guarantee card. I shouldn't be charged as if I'm using credit. It's basically electronic cash, isn't it?

Or am I being stupid?

I've emailed FairFX to see what I can do about this but would be interested to know if anyone else has this problem. I'll post their reply in due course.

Been a while, and all a bit ancient now, but here is the reply I received from FairFX. Everything was sorted out satisfactorily but I have no idea if their website now recognises Mastercard debit cards as I haven't used the FairFX card for a while.

Thank you for your email.

At present we recognise any MasterCard as a credit card and charge a
1.5% fee. We are in the process of of updating our system so we can
distinguish between a MasterCard credit, debit or prepaid card.

In the meantime I recommend that you use the bank transfer method to
avoid the fee.

To pay us via a bank transfer, you need to log into our website,
and choose the "Direct Transfer" button at the payment page.

It will be up towards the top of the page.

You then need to follow the prompts and will be given a unique payment
reference number starting "FXP...", (NOTE: you cannot reuse this number
and it will change every time you place an order via Bank Transfer with
FairFX) place this in the reference field when transferring the money to
us from your Online Banking account.

Once your transfer has hit our account, we will place the funds on to
your FairFX Currency Card.

Do not hesitate to reply to this e-mail if you have any further
questions. We endeavour to respond to all enquiries within 48 hours.

Best Regards,

Jack Miles