Following new rules and regulations on Credit And Debit Card Transactions the Reserve Bank Of India recently introduced a host of measures to curb banking fraud and misuse of cards. 

From now onwards, all the debit and credit cards issued by banks will only be enabled for domestic transactions at ATMs and point of sale.

 The Reserve Bank of India regulated all banks and other card-issuing companies to disable all debit or credit cards’ online payment services, which have never been used in any digital payment, whether in India or abroad. 

If the customer wants to use the cards for online transactions, the cardholder would need to approach the bank.

Things to know about new debit and credit card rules;

• All newly furnished debit and credit cards, including those which are reissued, can only be used for domestic transactions at ATMs and point of sale terminals. 

• Cardholders need to approach their bank to enable other facilities, including online transactions, international transactions, and contactless transactions in their debit and credit cards. These services won’t be available by default anymore.

• If the customer wants to use the card outside India, they need to ask the bank to enable international transactions as till now, most of the bank’s issued cards by default can be used anywhere in the world.

• Banks hold the right to deactivate current cards and reissue them based on risk perception.

• Customers with cards would now have the privilege of switching on and switching off their cards, or any particular facility like ATM transaction, online transactions available in the debit or credit card. 

• The regulator has enabled banks to provide 24×7 mobile applications, net banking options to modify the limits and enable and disable services where all bank branches and ATMs would also hold these options.

Many banks have been issuing cards based on near field communication technology, enabling a merchant not to need to swipe such cards or insert them in the point of sale terminal. 

These are also known as contactless cards where cardholders would now also get the option to enable or disable the NFC feature.

The new regulations apply only to debit and credit cards only. Prepaid gift cards or those used at mass transit systems are not covered under this.

These directions are issued under Section 10(2) of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (Act 51 of 2007), stated by RBI.

Written By- Mousami Jena

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