The Girocard, known more frequently as the EC card, is the most popular payment card in Germany. But the credit card company Mastercard announced that savings banks and banks will no longer be able to issue giro cards with the Maestro symbol from 1 July 2023 , as Maestro will be discontinued. Maestro cards can normally be identified by the blue and red Maestro logo which has been on it for years.
In the event of technical challenges, the Mastercard company promises to help with migration plans, which may also include transitional periods. Handelsblatt reports that customers of the Frankfurter Volksbank can still use the Girocard with Mastercard function until the end of 2027. Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank have not yet released statements about the future foreign functions of their bank cards.
Some private banks, such as Targobank, Santander, Hypo-Vereinsbank, or Comdirekt, no longer issue Girocards. Instead, they largely rely on a Visa debit card, which has the advantage that they can be used as virtual cards with Apple Pay or similar payment apps. In the past, this was only possible for Sparkasse customers with giro cards. However, Visa or Mastercard debit cards are not accepted at all cash registers in Germany.
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