Solo (debit card)
Solo was a national debit card scheme in the UK .
The Solo card was introduced in 1997 as a sister product to the Switch card, which had existed since 1988, and was specifically issued primarily to customers who did not have the credit rating required for Switch . Its use as a simple means of access to a savings account also enjoyed rapidly growing popularity.
Payments with Solo were also processed via the switch system and technically did not differ from these. Both cards were generally authorized online so that there was basically no risk of failure for the acceptance point and the bank. While the contractual partner at Switch had the option of doing without such authorization while accepting the inherent risk, this was already systemically excluded with Solo cards.
The purpose of the differentiation was therefore mainly to inform the contractual partners. While these could assume a certain creditworthiness for Switch cardholders, conversely a Solo card should serve as a warning of a possibly less solvent customer. This was used by some companies, for example, to exclude minors (to whom only a Solo card was issued) from buying certain goods, such as alcohol and cigarettes , or from shopping online.
By the end of December 2010, all Solo cards in circulation were replaced with alternative debit cards. After March 31, 2011, the Solo card issuer no longer processed transactions using Solo cards and the brand was discontinued.
Individual evidence
- ^ Changes to Solo and Maestro bank cards. In: DataCash Support. March 15, 2013, accessed June 25, 2013 .