Maestro Global Rules (PDF) - MasterCard

United States Region
6.10 Selective Authorization
An Issuer may geographically restrict Card usage to the United States Region
for a Card Program, except in the case of a prepaid Card Program, subject to
the following requirements:
3. The Issuer must inform the Cardholder clearly in writing of the geographic
scope of the Card;
4. The Issuer must also inform the Cardholder clearly in writing that he/she
has the option of enabling expanded geographic use of the Card upon the
Cardholder’s request. An Issuer must comply with requests from Cardholders
for expanded geographic use of a Card. If the Issuer cannot expand a Card’s
use to a specific country or a select group of countries as requested by the
Cardholder, the Issuer must enable the Card for global use and must inform the
Cardholder accordingly; and
5. The geographic restriction must be clearly printed on the Card back, for
example, “For use only in the United States. To enable for use outside the
United States, please call (Issuer).”
For additional information, refer to the Card Design Standards manual.
For purposes of this section, if an Issuer chooses to geographically restrict
Card usage to the United States, the Issuer must permit Card usage in the
U.S. Region, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and
the Northern Mariana Islands.
©1993–2012 MasterCard. Proprietary. All rights reserved.
20-6 9 November 2012 • Maestro Global Rules