Amazes me how London lost the plot. 30 years ago access, switch, access etc were common, but visa and mastercard managed to take over.

Switch merged with Maestro, which was owned by Mastercard, to become Switch-Maestro, which eventually became Mastercard Debit.

Yes. Most people here (Austria) use their mastercard debit card to pay cashless. You get them at 14 already IIRC.