New debit, credit card rules explained in seven points

The Reserve Bank of India on Monday issued new set of rules for issuance/ reissuance of credit and debit cards to improve user convenience and increase the security of card transactions

Here are the key provisions.

1) Banks have been asked to allow only domestic card transactions at ATMs and PoS terminals in India at the time of issuance/reissuance of card.

2) For international transactions, online transactions and contactless transactions, customers will have to separately set up services on their card, which means the customer will have to specifically opt in for these services to be set up on their card.

3) For existing cards, issuers may take a decision, based on their risk perception, whether to disable the card not present (domestic and international) transactions, international transactions and contactless transaction rights. Existing cards which have never been used for online/ international / contactless transactions shall be mandatorily disabled for this purpose.

4) Users will have 24×7 access to switch on/ off or change all transaction limits via all available channels — mobile application / internet banking / ATMs / Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

5) Rules will come into effect from 16 March, 2020.

6) Issuers shall provide to all cardholders facility to switch on/ off and set/ modify transaction limits (within the overall card limit, if any, set by the issuer) for all types of transactions – domestic and international, at PoS/ ATMs / online transactions / contactless transactions, etc.,

7) The provisions are not mandatory for prepaid gift cards and those used at mass transit systems.