The Reserve Bank of India introduced several new guidelines to secure debit cards and credit cards, amid a rise in banking fraud cases. RBI issued new rules for debit and credit cards to improve the convenience and security of card transactions. As per RBI’s new direction, all the new debit and credit cards issued by banks will only be enabled for domestic transactions at ATMs and point of sale terminals from March 16.
For existing cards, issuers can take a decision based on their risk perception whether to disable the card not present (domestic and international) for transactions, RBI said.
Key points cardholders must know:
All debits and credit cards, including those which are reissued, can only be used for domestic transactions at ATMs and point of sale terminals at the time of issuance / re-issuance of the card. “At the time of issue/re-issue, all cards (physical and virtual) shall be enabled for use only at contact-based points of usage within India,” RBI said.
Banks can deactivate current cards and reissue them based on risk perception. RBI has asked all banks and other card-issuing companies to disable online payment services of all debit and credit cards that have never been used for online/contactless transactions. RBI told banks and card issuers: “Existing cards which have never been used for online (card not present) /international/contactless transactions shall be mandatorily disabled for this purpose.”
If the cardholder wants to use the Debit/Credit card outside India, then they need to ask the bank to enable international transactions.
Cardholders now can switch on and switch off their card or any particular facility like ATM transaction, online transactions available in the Debit or Credit Card.
Customers can get the facility to set their transaction limits, said RBI.
RBI’s new rule for debit and credit cards will come into effect from March 16. However, it will not be applicable for prepaid gift cards and those cards used at the mass transit system.
