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Switch is a former debit card in the United Kingdom, now re-branded as Maestro. It was a sister to the Solo debit card.
Switch was launched in 1988 by Midland Bank, National Westminster Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland as a multifunction cheque guarantee and cash card. The brand was merged with Maestro, an international debit card brand owned by MasterCard Worldwide, in 2002. This merger has been referred to as the "penguin wedding," with distinctive advertisements of penguins in different international settings created by Joel Veitch.
The merger was also intended to increase the acceptance of foreign Maestro cards in the UK. However, despite the Maestro brand name, point of sale transactions in the UK are still processed by Switch Card Services Limited. Consequently many retailers who advertise that they accept Maestro can only accept UK-issued cards, i.e. former Switch cards. This situation can cause some confusion for visitors to the UK who may have their Maestro cards declined at the point of sale.
Switch/Maestro cards issued by certain banks, notably the HSBC group, carry an issue number on the bottom of the card corresponding to the number of times a card has been issued on a particular account. This is usually because the current account number the card is linked to actually forms a large part of the card number, and therefore the card number cannot be readily changed in case of loss or the card expiring.
Despite not being used as a brand for a number of years, the term "Switch" is sometimes used by members of the public to refer to any kind of debit card (even those issued by Visa under the name Visa Debit), and the term is also sometimes still used on e-commerce sites to refer to Maestro cards.
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