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| Product type | Debit card |
|---|---|
| Owner | MasterCard |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1988 |
| Discontinued | 2002 |
| Related brands | Maestro |
| Website | switch.co.uk at theWayback Machine (archived 2000-03-01) |
Switch was adebit card brand in the United Kingdom from 1988 until 2002. It was then merged withMaestro, which is owned byMasterCard.
Switch was launched in 1988 byMidland Bank,National Westminster Bank andThe Royal Bank of Scotland as a multifunctioncheque guarantee andcash card.
This merger was referred to as the "penguin wedding," due to its advertisements of penguins in different international settings created byJoel Veitch. Since then, Switch has been out of circulation and banks migrated customers from Switch toMaestro.[1] The deal was announced in August 2002.[2]
The merger was also intended to increase the acceptance of foreign Maestro cards in the United Kingdom.[citation needed]
This change also led to the discontinuation ofSolo debit cards.[3]
Switch/Maestro cards issued by certain banks carried anissue number on the bottom of the card corresponding to the number of times a card had been issued on a particular account. This was usually because thecurrent account number the card was linked to actually formed a large part of the card number, and therefore the card number could not be readily changed in case of loss or the card expiring.[4]
In January 2009,First Direct andHSBC discontinued the use of Maestro card, issuingVisa Debit cards to new customers, and a gradual roll out throughout 2009 to existing customers. That September,Clydesdale Bank andYorkshire Bank, both owned byNational Australia Bank, started the process of replacing the Maestro card with aDebit Mastercard for their current accounts, except for the Readycash and Student accounts, for which the Maestro card continued to be issued.
In the same month theRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (Europe's largest debit card issuer which included theRoyal Bank of Scotland,NatWest,Coutts andUlster Bank) switched from Maestro to Visa Debit, a process that took two years to complete.[5][6][7]