Solo is a debit card produced by Switch Card Services in the UK, specifically for people under 18 or on lower incomes. One particular feature of the card is that all transactions require electronic authorisation from the issuing bank. Such authorisation will not be given if there are not sufficient funds in the cardholder's account and so it is not possible to incur an overdraft.

The card was launched on 1 July 1997 and in 2004 there were 7.2 million Solo cards in circulation in the UK. Its sister card is Switch.

Its main rival is the Visa Electron debit card, which can also be issued to under-18s. The main advantage of Visa Electron over Solo is that it has become widely accepted internationally. There are however some UK merchants who do not accept the Visa Electron card. In addition many Solo cards function as Maestro allowing cardholders to use their card abroad.

Disadvantages

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Acceptance

One notable disadvantage of the Solo card is that it is rarely accepted in internet based retailers. Use of the Paypal (tm) network can overcome this. Solo cards are technically Switch/Maestro cards, however some online retailers can differentiate Solo cards from other Switch cards through their numbering scheme and prevent. Due to their availability to under 18s, they can also be used as a simple age-vetting mechanism; for example, when online shopping service Ocado accepted Solo, they refused to sell razor blades or alcoholic drinks to anyone paying via Solo, even though some Solo card holders are over 18 (the service now does not accept Solo, however it does not check for Solo card numbers if Switch is selected).

Another, more profoundly irritating situation is that of train tickets. Solo cards cannot be used to purchase train tickets by phone, web or FastTicket pickup at stations (selecting Switch as the method does not work). This is because the rail ticket network does not have the infrastructure to authorise with the issuing bank for every payment (Solo requires the account balance to be checked with every transaction). London Underground ticket machines however accept the cards.

External links

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• Solocard.co.uk

Debit cards