Online and contactless transactions will be disabled on March 16 on debit and credit cards that have never been used for online transactions.
This is as per the direction of Reserve Bank of India‘s (RBI) given on January 15 to banks to disable the facility as a security measure.
The directive issued by RBI in January had directed banks and other card issuers that all debit or credit cards issued or re-issued by them were to be only enabled to be used at ATMs and Point of Sale (PoS) devices within India.
However, banks will also have to provide 24×7 basis facility for enabling online (card not present)/international/contactless transactions.
Customers will have to be provided with the facility to on or off the additional facilities through multiple channels – mobile application /internet banking / ATMs /Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
At present, all cards can be used for PoS, ATM, contactless and online transactions within India or abroad.
However, RBI said with the increase in use of cards for transactions, the above modification is being introduced to improve user convenience and increase the security of card transactions.
Existing cards which have never been used for online (card not present)/international/contactless transactions have been directed to be mandatorily disabled for those facilities from 16 March 2020.
Customers will receive an alert through SMS or e-mail every time they change the status of their card.