On Sat, 24 Feb 2007, Broadback wrote:

As far as I know none of the credit/debit cards issued by banks and building
societies have issue numbers. In fact if you look at the form to purchase on
line they always point out that issue numbers are for switch cards only.

au contraire...

There is no such thing as Switch any more. The Switch brand was dropped in
favour of Maestro a few years ago. I don't think there are any cards
bearing the Switch logo which are still valid; online merchants are
supposed to remove the Switch logo by June of this year at the latest.

At least HSBC are currently using Maestro debit cards bearing issue
numbers. Online transactions will not be authorised without this number.

--
Alistair Riddell - BOFH
Microsoft - because god hates us