Actually while you cannot tell from the presence of the card, the BIN and the subsequent numbers tell the story behind it. I know in NZ the system can distinguish a New Zealand issued debit card, but they dont call it debit card like the rest of the world. It has a unique name on this form of payment but the essence is the same - money immediately comes out of your bank account the moment you swipe the card (when cards were still only swipe type). Pretty sure with chip card it is even easier to distinguish the nature of a card.