Switch (debit Card)

Switch is a debit card in the United Kingdom. It is 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, in late 2002. This merger has been referred to as the "penguin wedding," with distinctive advertisements of penguins in different international settings created by Joel Veitch. Since then, Switch has been out of circulation and banks migrated customers from Switch to Maestro.

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 could only accept UK-issued cards, i.e. former Switch cards.

Switch/Maestro cards issued by certain banks, notably the HSBC group (which has now replaced Switch with Visa Debit), carried an issue 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 the current account number the card is 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.

Despite the formal brand remaining defunct for a number of years, the term "Switch" is commonly used to refer to Maestro cards in the UK, consequently they are referred to as Switch/Maestro.