I received a letter from HSBC that they will stop the Maestro debit cards and bring out new VISA debit cards. This is a particular bu**er since Maestro is particularly useful here in Switzerland and neighboring Germany. I had used my UK account as a safety buffer, just incase I needed to buy something and there wasn't sufficient funds in CH.

So I set about transferring the funds to another bank (Nat West) although it would accept SWitzerland as my address when I hit the last button to confirm my Personal Details it came up with an error (not in the UK).

I'd suggest applying for the visa debit, I used one everywhere on our travels through the UK, Switzerland, Italy and France and have had no problems having it accepted everywhere credit cards were accepted
HTH

Nic

That is the point, if Credit cards are accepted then fine, where they are not. generally a Maestro or Postfinance card is accepted.

Yup I had the EXACT same problem when I got my new HSBC card after losing my old Maestro... so many places don't accept VISA (due to the high Swiss charges)that I found it a huge inconvenience. Get a Postfinance or Credit Suisse account and then life can carry on, but yes, it's a big pain in the rear. I was also gobsmacked that Media Markt didn't take cc's, I mean come on... it's seriously backwards, charges or no charges.

I got the same shocker last week at Media Markt when I wanted to pay with my credit card for a 600.-chf camera there. Fortunately I was able to pay with the Maestro Card. The problem with the Maestro is that they often have a very low limit (I think 1000.- or 2000.- chf per purchase) which isn't going to do you much good buying some of the big ticket items that Media Markt carries.

Apologies, my visa debit card allows me to select savings and enter a pin number to enable cash/ eftpos transactions and to select credit and sign so I didn't have problems. If I couldn't use credit or the eftpos, I'd get cash from an ATM. I wrongly assumed that this was available everywhere.