Your debit, credit cards may get blocked from December 31, here’s why

You might have recieved a message from your respective bank lately to upgrade your debit and credit cards. But if you ignored the message, then you are in some rude shock after December 31.

If you are thinking what do you need to do avoid the same then let us tell you that the Reserve Bank of India in order to protect the customers from fradulent transactions had issued guidelines to  to change Magstripe Debit Cards to EMV Chip Debit Cards by the end of 2018. The conversion process is absolutely safe and comes with no charges.

The EMV chip-based debit and credit cards are in use since January 2016. The RBI had made it mandatory for banks to issue only EMV chip-based cards to new customers opening new accounts or applying for new debit or credit cards after 31 January 2016.

Earlier, the State Bank of India has recently issued a notice on its official website, informing customers that, “It has been decided by the Bank that all the Magstripe Debit Cards which are in blocked state as on 28-Feb-2017 and to all such requests for blocking thereafter will remain blocked permanently. Instead free EMV Chip Cards have to be issued to them. The affected cardholders are to be advised to apply for replacement EMV Chip Card through internet banking or by approaching their home Branch.”

According to the SBI website, “EMV Chip technology is the latest global standard for Debit Card payments. This technology features Debit Cards with an embedded microprocessor chip that store and protects cardholder data. This is a much secure technology as compared to Magstripe variants of Card.”

Just in case you fail to replace your Debit/Credit card before the deadline, it will be blocked. To identify whether your card is EMV chip-based or not, just check if there is a golden chip embedded on the card on the front side. If yes, you have an EMV card.

You can Apply to replace your old debit card with an EMV Chip Debit Card by visiting your home Branch. You can also request for issuance of the replacement EMV Chip Debit Card through internet banking.