Problem: I am a merchant in the US who accepts Paypal. My customer is
in the UK and only has a "Maestro" debit card. She tells me this
cannot be used to make payments through Paypal.  What are the non-Visa
or Mastercard options in terms of sending payment from the UK to the
US and how much would it cost to send approx. $350 USD UK->US? I
checked the UK website for Western Union but their transfers must be
funded by Visa/Mastercard.

Isn't Maestro the British version of MasterCard.  Tell her to try
entering it as if it were a MasterCard.

Alternately, have her try paypal.co.uk.

No, unless MasterCard in the UK is different to MasterCard in the US.
Do you have "Switch" cards over in Leftpondia? I'll see if I can find
out how I paid for some things from EBay that went across the ocean a
while ago. I seem to recall in that case it was about 5 UKP extra on
top of currency conversions, so your customer is looking at around 200
UKP or so.

Stephan

I checked the Maestro card website and it does not appear to have the
"Mastercard" logo as US debit cards (including Paypal's) do. I read
through the Paypal website and entered "Maestro" in the Help section
and all it says is that you can use the Paypal Mastercard to withdraw
funds at Maestro ATMs. I think Maestro is like a true debit card
without the ability to be used as a credit card.

No, Maestro is not the same as Mastercard: we have Mastercard in the
UK. Maestro is a debit card facility that just takes the money
straight out of your account. In fact, Maestro is the new name for
Switch, and is accepted at many stores in the US. If you can find
another merchant who does accept Maestro, perhaps you could try to
have them accept payment and reimburse you for a small fee, though
seems unlikely? I am not 100% sure that would be legal however, and
may throw up insurance issues.

I think the card your client has is similar to the Visa Electron card
which can only be used for ATM's or electronic debiting.

Western Union in the UK WILL accept cash for transfer to wherever.
They have lots of agents throughout the UK.

If the customer has a Maestro debit card then they have a current bank
account. They can easily transfer funds from their bank account into
paypal, and then pay you from the paypal balance.

Just get them to log into Paypal, select "Add Funds", and "Transfer
Funds From A Bank In The United Kingdom". They'll need to register
their bank details if they haven't already. Oh, and it won't cost them
a penny.

Hello  i have a Maestro card and i can confirm to you that  maestro
card will work  on pay pal as SWITCH . They recently announced that
they where changing their name to switch to make it easier for its
customers.

 article can be found it wanted by you.
thanks 
mcerazer