Electrostatic interactions in monolayers and vesicles of acidic phospholipids are studied by thermodynamical and optical techniques in conjunction with numerical calculations. A nonmonotonic ionic strength dependence with an extremum at 0.1 M (NaCl) is observed for the phase transition temperature of vesicles as well as for the surface pressure of monolayers at low molecular density. This finding is in accordance with the calculations predicting the dominance of charge screening by monovalent counterions only for concentrations above 0.1 M. For lower salt content, however, its increase causes an elevation of the degree of dissociation and thus also electrostatic repulsion. This leads to a higher surface pressure, a lower transition temperature and a smaller size of solid domains observed in the liquid/solid coexistence range of monolayers. This supports the previously published idea, that finite size and repulsion of the domains arise from a different surface charge density in fluid and solid lipid phases.