Do these things look like they might be related? Yeah, I’d say so too. But that was not the prevailing thought in my room the other day.

For whatever reason, a discussion arose about ATMs and one man noted he had a Maestro card. I assured him that the card would work in Cirrus (MasterCard) ATMs. He disagreed, saying they were different.

Well, yes, but look at the card, I said. It’s the same symbol, the same typography. “No, no,” he said. “The Cirrus has a blue circle. Maestro has a red circle.” One of his countryman agreed with him.

Now as it happened, I was coincidentally on the Maestro Card FAQ a short time later, and I found my way to printing the page that includes the line “Maestro is a member of the MasterCard/Maestro/Cirrus ATM network…” I presented it to my doubter a short time later, perhaps a shade triumphantly.

That’s when things got interesting. Though he immediately acknowledged his mistake, he put my zeal for accuracy down to my being an American. It wasn’t that I in particular was one didactic dude, it was that Americans in general thought they knew it all, and thus how could I help being that way?

It’s interesting, when you get thrown into a diverse situation like this, that some use nationality as a filter through which to judge personality.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2003 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Travel.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.