Why can't VAA accept Electron or Solo cards?

Just noticed that VAA don't accept Solo or Electron cards for payment. Anyone "in the know" care to explain why, or is it just an easy way to rip customers off with yet another fee and restricting choice to enhance revenues?

They generously point out that there are charges for payment by credit card etc; how else do they think (being realistic) that most people are going to be able to/want to pay?

You can use them over the phone just not online.

[mitchja]

My Halifax debit card is a VISA debit card and I have never had any problems using it anywhere.

I'm not really sure what Solo/Electron cards are (are they debit cards?) or who issues them, but you do tend to see warning signs about Solo/Electron cards on many self-service pertrol pumps so it's clearly not just VS that have issues with these types of cards.

[Nottingham Nick]

I am not familiar with these cards either, but a quick google search brings up all sorts of threads that infer that they aren't as welcome, or as easy to use, as conventional debit cards.

This article says they are 'customer present only cards', so holders will struggle to use them for online or phone purchases.

Nick

This wiki article might help its says

The difference between Visa Electron and Visa Debit is that payments with Visa Electron require that all the funds be available at the time of transfer, i.e., Visa Electron card accounts may not be overdrawn.

And the problem is that

Some online stores and all offline terminals (like on trains and aircraft) do not support Visa Electron because their systems cannot check for the availability of funds.