Eurocheque card
The Eurocheque card ( EC card for short ) was a guarantee card for redeeming a Eurocheque until January 1, 2002 . The name of the payment service based on a check and a plastic card became one of the first brands in the banking sector. At the same time, the Eurocheque was the first cross-border service of its kind in Europe. It has since been replaced by various debit cards .
format
The Eurocheque card was issued by the financial institution as a plastic card in ID-1 format (8.560 × 5.398 cm), contained a magnetic strip and later also a chip . A hologram was later added to ensure greater protection against forgery , motifs were Robert Schumann , from 1997 Ludwig van Beethoven . The account number, card number and name of the account holder were embossed or imprinted in a raised manner.
The cards were not produced by the issuing financial institutions themselves, but by contracted service providers (e.g. Giesecke & Devrient ); the exhibition usually lasted more than a week.
development
In the newly developing private customer business, the check or the instruction was not sufficient as a means of payment because it was only accepted in lieu of performance by people who were convinced of the creditworthiness of their paying contract partner. The Europe-wide introduction of eurocheque and Eurocheque cards was only possible thanks to extensive cooperation between the European financial institutions. In two conferences on May 10th and on May 17th and 18th. In October 1968 an agreement was reached on the Eurocheque logo (→ picture), the names Eurocheque and Eurocheque card, the redemption conditions (in financial institutions) and the (international) accounting. From May 1, 1969, checks were issued under the Eurocheque system and initially accepted in 18 countries. The number soon rose further (to a total of 49), both in terms of the number of countries with Eurocheque issues ("active countries") and those with Eurocheque acceptance ("passive countries"). They were soon no longer limited to Europe, but also included countries in the Middle East and North Africa. From 1975 the Eurocheque system was also opened to the non-banking sector.
Soon the EC cards were equipped with additional capabilities that went far beyond a guarantee card for Eurocheques. With the advent of ATMs , it was now possible to use the EC card to withdraw money from an ATM or to display the account balance. In a later step, it was also possible to pay at machines or in shops. These additional features that go beyond the check guarantee are explained in more detail under Electronic Cash and Debit Card.
function
The guarantee card for the Eurocheque bridged the weakness of a check in that it could not be accepted by the drawee, the ban on acceptance (Art. 4 Check Act ). An instruction can be accepted - by accepting an instruction, the verity of the claim against the drawee (assigned) is secured for the payee . With the uncertainty about their creditworthiness, however, it has come to an end. The need for traffic therefore demanded a guaranteed responsibility for the drawn banker for the claim up to a certain maximum amount of liability. This was initially 300 DM, later then 400 DM.
occurrence
The check issuer had to write the number of his guarantee card on the back of the Eurocheque. This enabled the bank to determine whether the person for whose solvency it is supposed to be responsible is an authorized customer of its. The guarantee contract between the check taker and the bank came about at:
- Correspondence between the number, the signature of the issuer, the name of the bank and the account number on the guarantee card and the form for the Eurocheque certificate,
- Issue of the Eurocheque within the validity of the guarantee card,
- timely presentation of the check (within eight days within Germany, within 30 days for checks issued abroad).
The guarantee card did not have to be presented to the payee. The ownership of the guarantee card showed the check issuer to be a representative (aa as a messenger) of the banker drawn. The check issuer concluded a guarantee contract for the banker with the payee. With the delivery of the Eurocheques by the authorized check issuer to the check recipient, the payee's guarantee of up to DM 400 arose.
Disclaimer of objection
The payee's claim under the guarantee contract was abstract. The bank could not raise any objections to the guarantee claim arising from the relationship between the bank and the check issuer ( coverage ratio ). Such objections can e.g. For example, the check issuer does not have sufficient funds in its account or the check is revoked by the issuer. Only insofar as defects in the formation or in the existence of the guarantee contract were reported, these were decisive. This was the case, among other things, if the card holder was not its rightful holder. If the customer lost the forms for the Eurocheque and an unauthorized person filled them out with the correct card number and falsifying the signature. B. a guarantee contract is not concluded because the unauthorized person's lack of power of representation was a legal objection to the creation of the guarantee contract itself. However, the bank was liable to the check taker from a legal point of view . Other objections relating to the creation of the guarantee contract are all other errors in the creation of the guarantee contract (lack of signature, etc.).
