Why should you change your debit card and credit card by Dec 31
New Delhi : Almost all the banks in India are sending messages to every account holder asking them to upgrade their debit and credit cards. If you have received one such message but trashed it in the spam folder, then be careful. Kindly, retrieve the bank message and read it once.
It is advisable to read the message sent from the bank you have deposited cash with, as you need to replace your existing debit and credit cards with new ones, if you have not already done. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed the banks to do so. The older debit and credit cards will become useless after December 31.
This directive from the RBI was necessitated in order protect you from some unscrupulous online predator. Banks have to follow the RBI instructions so as to make ensure security within the banks. Debit and credit card piracy has been a major issue, as has been found in online banking fraud cases. The new chip-based cards have been prescribed to keep your money and transaction safe.
Here's why you need to upgrade your debit and credit card:
The existing debit and credit cards are magnetic stripe-only cards. Their cloning has become a major challenge to those responsible for safe monetary transaction
The new cards are EMV chip-based. EVM stands for Europay, Mastercard, Visa. The old magnetic stripe-only debit and credit cards are to be replaced by EMV chip-based ones by 31 December 2018.
Replacement of existing debit and credit cards with the new EMV chip-based cards is free of cost.
EMV chip-based debit and credit cards are more secured compared to magnetic stripe cards.
The chip-based cards are also called PIN (Personal Identification Number) cards. These cards use higher standards of data encryption and have improved storage technology.
The magnetic stripe cards have static information stored in the black strip that we see on the back of the card.
Transaction through a PoS device can be done using the magnetic stripe cards merely by swiping it while transaction using new chip-based PIN cards will ask for a PIN also.