Unembossed Visa Debit - Santander Current Account

Avionyx

Hi all,

I applied for a Santander Current account (Preferred in credit rate account) and have just received my card.

Its one of these Unembossed Visa Debit's with "For electronic use only" printed on it. It starts 4757.

Is this going to be of use, I travel alot (within the UK and abroad) for business and don't want to be stuck at a hotel/airport/petrol station only to find they don't take it.

What are its limitations as opposed to a card for non electronic use (assuming such a thing exists)

Alex

cifpower

What you have is a Visa Electron card. You can be quite restricted using it abroad, especially if you have to withdraw cash at an ATM. You also can't use it in certain places like on board planes or trains.

bendix

cifpower wrote: »

What you have is a Visa Electron card. You can be quite restricted using it abroad, especially if you have to withdraw cash at an ATM. You also can't use it in certain places like on board planes or trains.

Dunno why you say that. I have a Visa Electron card attached to my Bangkok Bank account in Thailand. I use it all over the world in ATMs and even as a form of card payment for hotels etc.

Never had an issue.

cifpower

I was told by someone who works for Barlcays that he and a lot of other customers had difficulty finding ATMs in Europe which would accept Electron.

System

It's not a Visa Electron, it's a Visa debit

It will work anywhere the Visa symbol is displayed except:

• Any place that uses the old style roll zip zap machines (i.e. non electronic).
• You may also have issues in places that are off-line like trains, planes and automobiles.

cifpower wrote: »

What you have is a Visa Electron card. You can be quite restricted using it abroad, especially if you have to withdraw cash at an ATM. You also can't use it in certain places like on board planes or trains.

Avionyx

Thanks guys, so hopefully I won't have any problems then. Although can someone confirm a rumour I heard about the non embossed cards NOT being accepted by Tesco as they still show as an electron?

Alex

savagej

It is not Visa Electron, if it was it would say Visa Electron on it.

Google "Visa Unembossed", you will find out lots of details about the card type this way.

The only difference is they cannot be put through an imprinter.

The BIN number, the first 4 digits is showing on Visa's list as a Debit card and NOT as an Electron card.

As for authorisation this is from an offical Visa website (it makes it an off-line card):

– [FONT=Arial,Bold][FONT=Arial,Bold][FONT=Arial,Bold]Authorization

[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

• [FONT=Arial,Bold][FONT=Arial,Bold][FONT=Arial,Bold]Over floor limit transactions must have positive
authorization

[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

• [FONT=Arial,Bold][FONT=Arial,Bold][FONT=Arial,Bold]Below floor limit the Merchant/Acquirer is

protected (except if card is listed on the CRB)
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

partlydave

Avionyx wrote: »

Hi all,

I applied for a Santander Current account (Preferred in credit rate account) and have just received my card.

Its one of these Unembossed Visa Debit's with "For electronic use only" printed on it. It starts 4757.

Is this going to be of use, I travel alot (within the UK and abroad) for business and don't want to be stuck at a hotel/airport/petrol station only to find they don't take it.

What are its limitations as opposed to a card for non electronic use (assuming such a thing exists)

Alex

Keep an eye on how interest you get on this account. I opened one in March 09 and am still having an ongoing saga with Santander because they have never paid me the 6% interest quoted. My case is with the financial ombudsman now.

Toe-Jam

Can anyone who has tried it and knows for sure tell me if the new 4757 Unembossed Visa Debit from Santander works in Pay@Pump services ?

adindas

I just notice my Santander Debit card. It is the same with my other Visa debit card. It start with 4547 XXXX XXXX XXXX. On the bottom it is written Visa Debit. I do not understand why do they provide various types of cards ?

ADINDAS

Avionyx wrote: »

Hi all,

I applied for a Santander Current account (Preferred in credit rate account) and have just received my card.

Its one of these Unembossed Visa Debit's with "For electronic use only" printed on it. It starts 4757.

Is this going to be of use, I travel alot (within the UK and abroad) for business and don't want to be stuck at a hotel/airport/petrol station only to find they don't take it.

What are its limitations as opposed to a card for non electronic use (assuming such a thing exists)

Alex

Mark_In_Hampshire

One question I have...

If you go into a petrol station and their link to the auth centre is down at the time, and you've filled your car with petrol, I've seen occasions where the card has been run through a manual imprint device and the amount handwritten on the slip, which you sign instead.

If that's no longer possible as a fallback, and I fill the car up, go to the checkout, and find their card machine is broken... how do I pay?

If it's our local, I could always pay the next time I go in. They're pretty friendly and they know me.

If it's miles away, do I just promise to pop a cheque in the post and leave