Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Dec 10: Banks in the country had begun the task of replacing the magnetic stripe ATM cards of their customers with EMV chip cards which have better safety features, several months back. Even as the process is on, Reserve Bank of India has said that from January 1, 2019, only EMV chip ATM cards would be accepted. Therefore the customers who hold old cards have to necessarily approach their banks and get EMV chip cards in their place.

As compared to magnetic stripe cards, cards embedded with chips have better safety features. Considering the gravity of situation created by online scamsters who have siphoned off thousands of crores of rupees of gullible bank customers by conveniently copying their card details, Reserve Bank of India had asked all the banks to stop issuing magnetic stripe cards and issue chip cards to their customers.

ATM card with EMV chip

It is said that it is easier to obtain details of the card from magnetic stripe cards. It is said that previous cards were more prone to fraud through skimming machines.

Customers of certain banks have said that their old cards have already become redundant, and the ATMs gave the message that their cards were not valid. Upon visiting the bank, they got to know that there is need to exchange their old cards. Most of the banks had sent messages to all their customers sufficiently in advance and have exchanged a major portion of their ATM cards.

The banks are also in the process of not accepting cheques which are without CTS (cheque truncation system).