Second Barclays Account, different type of debit card

moneyaspie2024

Hi I wanted to ask I opened a second account tonight with Barclays and it sent me a document in my app saying that the card type I’m getting is “DEBIT CONTACTLESS” but on my other existing account which I’ve held for a few years it stated the card type on the account opening letter as “CONNECT (ELEC) CONTACTLESS”

What is the difference out of curiosity (if any) as it’s mind boggling to me as to why they have 2 different types of debit cards surely they all do the same thing right ? 

EarthBoy

Barclays was the first bank in Britain to introduce debit cards, back in the mid 80s, and they called them Connect cards, so they're the same thing.  Connect is just a brand name for Barclays debit cards. 

However, the word "elec" might mean electronic use only.  That could refer to the old Electron cards, which were an inferior sort of Visa Debit card, which stopped you going overdrawn.  They could only be used where the merchant was able to check your balance online.  

moneyaspie2024

EarthBoy said:

Barclays was the first bank in Britain to introduce debit cards, back in the mid 80s, and they called them Connect cards, so they're the same thing.  Connect is just a brand name for Barclays debit cards. 

However, the word "elec" might mean electronic use only.  That could refer to the old Electron cards, which were an inferior sort of Visa Debit card, which stopped you going overdrawn.  They could only be used where the merchant was able to check your balance online.  

So I’m assuming the “DEBIT CONTACTLESS” dosent always check you have funds available but the “CONNECT (ELEC) CONTACTLESS does if I’m correct ? 

WillPS

moneyaspie2024 said:

EarthBoy said:

Barclays was the first bank in Britain to introduce debit cards, back in the mid 80s, and they called them Connect cards, so they're the same thing.  Connect is just a brand name for Barclays debit cards. 

However, the word "elec" might mean electronic use only.  That could refer to the old Electron cards, which were an inferior sort of Visa Debit card, which stopped you going overdrawn.  They could only be used where the merchant was able to check your balance online.  

So I’m assuming the “DEBIT CONTACTLESS” dosent always check you have funds available but the “CONNECT (ELEC) CONTACTLESS does if I’m correct ? 

Practically there's rarely a difference nowadays, as the vast majority of transactions are processed online regardless of whether or not the card supports offline transactions.

The classic examples of places where transactions were always processed offline were on board trains and planes, but even these are sometimes processed online now. 

Occasionally a shop will have a local/national network failure and will fallback to processing offline. One telltale sign of this is that contactless stops working. As often as not they'll just say they can't process debit cards at all in this circumstance though.

moneyaspie2024

WillPS said:

moneyaspie2024 said:

EarthBoy said:

Barclays was the first bank in Britain to introduce debit cards, back in the mid 80s, and they called them Connect cards, so they're the same thing.  Connect is just a brand name for Barclays debit cards. 

However, the word "elec" might mean electronic use only.  That could refer to the old Electron cards, which were an inferior sort of Visa Debit card, which stopped you going overdrawn.  They could only be used where the merchant was able to check your balance online.  

So I’m assuming the “DEBIT CONTACTLESS” dosent always check you have funds available but the “CONNECT (ELEC) CONTACTLESS does if I’m correct ? 

Practically there's rarely a difference nowadays, as the vast majority of transactions are processed online regardless of whether or not the card supports offline transactions.

The classic examples of places where transactions were always processed offline were on board trains and planes, but even these are sometimes processed online now. 

Occasionally a shop will have a local/national network failure and will fallback to processing offline. One telltale sign of this is that contactless stops working. As often as not they'll just say they can't process debit cards at all in this circumstance though.

I think Ryanair from personal experience do process on board transactions online, as I was able to pay for a coffee with Apple Pay, something which isn’t possible to process as an offline transaction. 

Maegi

moneyaspie2024 said:

WillPS said:

moneyaspie2024 said:

EarthBoy said:

Barclays was the first bank in Britain to introduce debit cards, back in the mid 80s, and they called them Connect cards, so they're the same thing.  Connect is just a brand name for Barclays debit cards. 

However, the word "elec" might mean electronic use only.  That could refer to the old Electron cards, which were an inferior sort of Visa Debit card, which stopped you going overdrawn.  They could only be used where the merchant was able to check your balance online.  

So I’m assuming the “DEBIT CONTACTLESS” dosent always check you have funds available but the “CONNECT (ELEC) CONTACTLESS does if I’m correct ? 

Practically there's rarely a difference nowadays, as the vast majority of transactions are processed online regardless of whether or not the card supports offline transactions.

The classic examples of places where transactions were always processed offline were on board trains and planes, but even these are sometimes processed online now. 

Occasionally a shop will have a local/national network failure and will fallback to processing offline. One telltale sign of this is that contactless stops working. As often as not they'll just say they can't process debit cards at all in this circumstance though.

I think Ryanair from personal experience do process on board transactions online, as I was able to pay for a coffee with Apple Pay, something which isn’t possible to process as an offline transaction. 

I've paid with Google Pay on flights and transactions appear up to a week later via a phone notification. 
They did say (on more than one flight) they didn't accept Pre-Pay, Revolut and Monzo cards .