RBS and NatWest issuing Visa Debit cards once again

MDMD

WillPS said:

stclair said:

I don’t think personally they will be moving back to Visa. The website still makes reference to MasterCard 

I don't think they are necessarily moving back, but I think they're clearly no longer moving away from Visa. It'll be interesting to see what basis Visa and Mastercards are issued moving forward.

Looks like something to do with what card you were on when they issue it. Presumably some people weren’t issued a MC

https://community.monzo.com/t/collected-thoughts-on-card-design/113314/6354

Lions_89

I had visa, then they moved me to Mastercard. Are we going back to
visa!!

a lot of banks have been moving away from visa, perhaps visa offered a new deal.

just to add as someone referred to Drummond. That in itself is a bit of a mystery. When I opened an account I got a standard rbs card, but when I ordered a new card I got a Drummond design. I’ve since closed the account as I prefer child and co.

stclair

I’ve literally ordered a new card and it’s showing as a MasterCard. 

WillPS

stclair said:

I’ve literally ordered a new card and it’s showing as a MasterCard. 

Yes, because they're not moving 'back' to Mastercard. They're just stopping the process of converting Visa customers to Mastercard - so for my one remaining unconverted Visa Debit card I guess that'll remain a Visa Debit card when it expires now.

I wonder what new customers are receiving?

Lions_89 said:

just to add as someone referred to Drummond. That in itself is a bit of a mystery. When I opened an account I got a standard rbs card, but when I ordered a new card I got a Drummond design. I’ve since closed the account as I prefer child and co.

Prior to Autumn 2022 -

Childs sort code - you got a Childs Visa, regardless of account type*

Drummonds sort code - you only got a Drummonds Visa if you were a 'Premier' customer or you had your card design changed (manually, by the bank).

After Autumn 2022 -

Childs - you got a Childs Mastercard, regardless of account type

Drummonds - you got a Drummonds Mastercard, regardless of account type, even if you had previously had an RBS card

* there is still the edge case of 'online only' debit cards, which may still be issued with the default RBS design.

SupaSava2000

I opened a second NatWest account earlier this week and the card being sent out is a Visa debit. My other NatWest account has a MasterCard debit.

pridehappy

Surely it would be less confusing and more cost effective to have one card design, one card manufacturer and convert all cards to it. A little like Santander used to have Visa for debit and Mastercard for credit, then moved all to Mastercard. 

Personally however, I’m not sure if it makes that much of a difference. The actual card design makes more difference to me!

Lions_89

I suspect for whatever reason, Natwest are doing a U turn and going back to Visa.

WillPS

Lions_89 said:

I suspect for whatever reason, Natwest are doing a U turn and going back to Visa.

If that's the case, why are Mastercards still being issued?

I suspect one of the following has happened:

1. Visa have offered a last minute bung to Natwest Group, to ensure they don't fully migrate away from their systems, keep the door open etc
2. Some sort of regulatory concern was raised about the deal Mastercard made with Natwest Group, perhaps purchase of market share related, and the easiest way around that was to stop further migration away from Visa (and seemingly make Visa the default for new accounts again).
   

born_again

Mastercard offered banks big £££ Bribe to move to them. The sheer costs to the banks in terms of training on new systems was massive, not only in cost, but also staff time away from their roles. Never mind all the IT work required to integrate into banks legacy systems. Which took staff away form other customer focused development systems.

Visa are now starting to offer £££ Bribe to bring them back. Once again costs to banks will be massive in retraining on the new systems.

Stuff like this is a joke, as all it does is take staff away from their roles to learn something new & then have to forget it in a few years.
End of the day only one group pays for this.. You & me as users of Visa & Mastercard.

Lions_89

WillPS said:

Lions_89 said:

I suspect for whatever reason, Natwest are doing a U turn and going back to Visa.

If that's the case, why are Mastercards still being issued?

I suspect one of the following has happened:

1. Visa have offered a last minute bung to Natwest Group, to ensure they don't fully migrate away from their systems, keep the door open etc
2. Some sort of regulatory concern was raised about the deal Mastercard made with Natwest Group, perhaps purchase of market share related, and the easiest way around that was to stop further migration away from Visa (and seemingly make Visa the default for new accounts again).
   

Yes those seem possible. By the sounds of it the Visa contract never came to an end fully, so maybe they just signed a new one and will not renew with Mastercard. But I understood these agreements normally run for many years?