[alanpearce]

Yes, there's a different kind of debit card. I usually use a different term that's country-specific (like the cards themselves).

For Germany, a German debit card (the "other sort", as you put it) isn’t the same as any other. It doesn’t have Visa or MasterCard co-branding like other countries’ debit cards, nor a 16 digit number, so it can’t be used online. I might also use the term "bank card" for this, because there are actual debit cards with Visa/MC co-branding which are available in Germany, but less common than other types.

It's also common for Germans to use "Kreditkarte" to mean anything with Visa/MC co-branding, which probably spills over into English. This also leads to the hilarious term "echte Kreditkarten" (real credit cards) for cards that actually have a rolling line of credit attached (these are rarely offered).

However, in the UK I recall that people are usually specific about whether they mean a credit card or a debit card.