Important news for credit and debit cardholders: RBI implements new rules to be effective from Oct 1, check details

This comes as refreshing news for debit, and credit card users as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has now issued new guidelines to make transactions more secure and prompt users to be more disciplines towards their finances. These new rules will be effective from October 1, 2020. 

According to reports in the Financial express, under the new guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), bank and other card-issuing companies have been advised to disable online payment services of all credit and debit cards that have never been utilised for online or contactless transactions both in India and internationally.

Moreover, the card-users will be able to opt for preferences--spend limits, opt-in or opt-out of services, for online transactions, contactless card transactions. However, prepaid cards and gift cards is not under the  RBI’s mandate.

The debit and credit cards issued by the bank will only be enabled for domestic transactions at ATMs and point of sale (PoS) terminals. If the cardholders want to enable credit or debit card outside India, they need to seek permission from the bank for international transactions.

Moreover, the Financial Express quoted Rajesh Mirjankar, MD and CEO, InfrasoftTech as saying that the new feature will enable cardholders to 'have the option to switch on and off their debit and credit cards for any facility – ATM, NFC, POS, or eCommerce (card-not-present) transaction.'

However, banks also have the power to deactivate current cards and reissue them based on risk perception.

Many experts believe that these new features will prevent card fraud, and the withdrawal caps put in by the customers for transactions will limit the damage caused by cyber or ATM fraud.

It is also to be noted that individuals can also manage international spending. An individual who travels to a foreign country can activate the 'global transaction mandate' on the card nd spend based on his/her needs.

To summarise all the points made in the above statements, a cardholder can set separate limits for each channel such as ATM, PoS, NOC, and put a cap on online card transactions, and international spending.