Cirrus (ATM network)

In the early 1980s a bank card only worked in your own bank's ATMs. Cirrus was set up in 1982 by a group of US banks so their customers could use each other's machines, and Mastercard took it over later that decade. Visa answered with its own Plus network. For many travellers this was the first time a card did anything abroad, long before foreign shops would take it.

In Europe the Cirrus logo often sat next to Maestro: Maestro for the till, Cirrus for the cash machine. Today Mastercard's main network handles everything and the distinction survives mostly as a relic in the logos. The brand is a reminder of a time when "will my card work abroad?" was a question you actually had to ask the bank.