Cirrus/Maestro debit card

pierods

New member
Sep 22, 2006
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Hi,

since having learnt a lesson with visa in dr the hard way, and having unjustly accused a business (Hotel Discovery, I apologize again :ermm:), I have two questions:

- My debit card is marked Cirrus/Maestro (not visa nor mastercard). Will it work in DR?

- is a debt card subjecto to fraud as a visa or mastercard ? (it seems not to me, just checking)

thanks
 
Feb 7, 2007
8,005
625
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Hi,

since having learnt a lesson with visa in dr the hard way, and having unjustly accused a business (Hotel Discovery, I apologize again :ermm:), I have two questions:

- My debit card is marked Cirrus/Maestro (not visa nor mastercard). Will it work in DR?

- is a debt card subjecto to fraud as a visa or mastercard ? (it seems not to me, just checking)

thanks

It is possible to use Cirruc/Maestro, it is a debit brand of Mastercard. It will work in the DR with no problems, you will have to enter a PIN number.

I would LOVE to hear from others to know if there were any instances of fraud from PIN-based cards. Imagine if the "people" get ahold of PIN and number, they just make a plastic and use it (as they do usually use the fraudulent cards in shops, not online) with PIN, there would be no way to claim the charges with the bank .... so I am afraid to use ANY non-dominican card ... btw it's best to have two accounts and transfer money to the withdrawal account for the amount you are going to charge/withdraw. Today, with Internet banking, you can do it even from a mobile phone while waiting in a checkout line.
 

bayaguanaman

New member
Oct 22, 2009
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You know, this thread brought something straight to mind. In the DR last April, I used my HSBC Visa at 2 locations, once in Banco Popular, Sabanah LArga and the other in Ferriteria Americano, no sooner had I got back to work in the Middle East, I got a statement confirming 2 transactions in Korea and 7 in Italy !!. Anyway, the bank muted around for a couple of weeks and thereafter issued a full refund....alls well then.
Next trip I used my Barclaycard Visa a couple of times, this time at Banco Popular and then a Feriterria Popular, and again getting back to Dubai, I tried to use and was over my limit, with some 57k (US) worth of purchases in western Australia. These card tricks get around.

Lucky for me, in the UAE, there is a finger (e-gate) pass system which records in and outgoing at the immigration. I was able to justify that I had not been out of the are at the time of some of the fraudulent transactions, and they refunded (grudged I hasten to add) the full amount, but I had to revisit many times to get the interest and overcharge costs repaid. Stranger still, to make fairly large cash withdrawals I only ever went inside the bank and had the teller swipe on the card net system.

Seems therefore like it is getting from bad to worse. !!
 

RacerX

Banned
Nov 22, 2009
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how much of this do you think is from bank malfeasance vs credit card fraud? I mean what if it is policy(subtle) to overcharge all international debits and credits? I mean with massive underemployment and unemployment here why would a underpaid teller take her career into her hands like that? That job was hard enough to get a now you re going to commit fraudulent and larcenous acts? She could, but what if it is a way for the bank at any given point in time to inflate their assets? You go to withdraw $5000pesos and they run the transaction 3 times. Its looks like they are doing 3 times the business they actually are. Or if their internet connection is like mines maybe they have to process the transaction 3 times because they never got a confirmation the first time. Now, with respect to deductions in Kuwait and in Italy, come on, that had to come from within the bank. Someone in middle management is selling the numbers. To finance their lifestyle.
I dont know, seems like the best thing to do is have 2 debit cards, one is your primary and the other secondary with 2 different banks. Now you can set it up before you leave to have funds on the primary and then transfer online, paypal o phone to the 2ndary. $100 in the 2ndary, phone it in to transfer $1000 from the 1ry to the 2ndary. It may be convoluted, I think PayPal is easier.
 

pierods

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Sep 22, 2006
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It is possible to use Cirruc/Maestro... btw it's best to have two accounts and transfer money to the withdrawal account for the amount you are going to charge/withdraw. Today, with Internet banking, you can do it even from a mobile phone while waiting in a checkout line.

That's exactly what I am going to do.

Plus when I go back home I will cancel that card and open another one.

Honestly, from the reports on the board, and from my personal experience (card charged for the exact amount of its limit, translated in dollars, one hour after monthly payment), I think

- it's the card processsing center that is deeply compromised
- it's the mob that's doing the stiffing

so I won't risk the total on my checking account out of lazyness.

Admin, how about making this post a sticky? How many people must be stiffed before we acknowledge the problem?
 

belgiank

Silver
Jun 13, 2009
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I have used my maestro card with no problems here, except for the fact that sometimes the funds were available in the account and the damn machine would state there were insufficient funds...

Another issue is the cash withdrawel limit a lot of the machines have here... sometimes it is 2000 rds, frequently 4000, sometimes 25000 rds... as I have to pay 3.5? each transaction, this makes a difference...

Second issue is that apparently the system is changing in Europe and that very soon our electronic ID-card will also be our maestro-card.... and nope... I will never put my ID into one of the machines here, or anywhere else in the world... where the hell did politicians get that fabulous idea
 

pierods

New member
Sep 22, 2006
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I have used my maestro card with no problems here, except for the fact that sometimes the funds were available in the account and the damn machine would state there were insufficient funds...

Another issue is the cash withdrawel limit a lot of the machines have here... sometimes it is 2000 rds, frequently 4000, sometimes 25000 rds... as I have to pay 3.5? each transaction, this makes a difference...

Second issue is that apparently the system is changing in Europe and that very soon our electronic ID-card will also be our maestro-card.... and nope... I will never put my ID into one of the machines here, or anywhere else in the world... where the hell did politicians get that fabulous idea

Could you tell us what are the ATMs with the higher limits? I have 3.62 euros/transaction...