Really? When I lived in Britain 6 years ago my debit card had no credit card affiliation, didn't see any that did.

Probably back in day the card used https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switch_(debit_card)

A few years ago the pinguins took over (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x48eLs8tnJo) and basically every card in the UK is now either Visa/MasterCard/Amex and very few Maestro.

Ah. That explains why when my Maestro card expired, it was replaced with a Visa Debit card.

The latter is more widely accepted for online shopping (only some merchants accept Maestro, whereas everyone accepts Visa and Visa Debit usually works there), so I was happy.

The cards have Visa or Mastercard on them but can fall back to use the debit card network by asking you which account to pay with.

The merchant can also disable you from selecting 'credit' while paying to force it to use the debit network.

Its also like this in Australia.

Very few banks still issue debit only cards (Switch/Maestro), they do if you ask for them, but they mostly only work at the ATM.

> asking you which account to pay with

This never happens in the UK. It confuses the heck out of me in countries where it does (e.g. New Zealand).

In Brazil, you can enable the same card you use to manage your bank account and withdraw cash as a Visa/Mastercard credit card. So every time you make a purchase you get a prompt like this

1. CREDITO

2. DEBITO

where you choose if you want to pay with credit or debit.

Last year I went to the UK on vacation. While paying my bills I noticed most people wouldn't know what to do when prompted. They would look confused and just hand me the card machine and let me handle it.

A good amount of places also ask this in the US.

In NZ if you just type your pin it selects the default account which is your every day banking account.

Same thing in Singapore. Never need to select credit in NZ / Aus / SG. Unless you specifically want to use credit.

Since last Thursday they are legally required to ask you but if it's anything like Germany most merchants don't care.

When I use my card outside the UK in a country where this is the norm (e.g. Italy) I am asked to choose the 'circuit' before paying, but the only choice I am given is "VISA DEBIT" - this is on ATMs and Chip&PIN machines.

I don't think any UK banks have their own payment network. The cards you get to access the account directly are debit cards (usually Visa Debit or Maestro), some (i.e. children accounts) give you a 'cash card' which only works at that bank's ATMs.

As far as I can tell, virtually all UK banks issue Visa Debit cards nowadays. Certainly Halifax, HSBC (First Direct), Natwest, Santander, Lloyds and RBS do which covers most of the population.

In the past a lot of cards were Switch, which became Maestro and then everyone dumped it for Visa.

Fortunately we still have the Link system where you're not charged for using an ATM that doesn't belong to your bank. cough Canada cough.