For curbing the menace of discrepancy and malware attacks pertaining to online banking, public sector giant the State Bank of India (SBI) has initiated blocking insecure and old ATM cards.
It seems that users carrying magstripe SBI debit cards may soon find their cards blocked.
In order to avoid this, the user must upgrade their cards to the EVM chip card at the earliest to avoid the blocking.
“All esteemed customers of State Bank of India are hereby informed 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,” an official communiqué of the bank uploaded on the website reads.
The bank has been sending messages to the SBI debit card holders informing about the blocking of their card. The bank notifies people to apply for a replacement card by visiting www.onlinesbi.com or the home branch. Users can avail the replacement EMV Chip Debit Card free of cost. In order to apply for the new EVM chip debit card online, one needs to login to www.onlinesbi.com with the help of their user id and password and under “eServices” tab click on “ATM Card Services” and follow the instructions.
To find out whether your card a magstripe or an EVM, you have to look for a chip secured on the front side the card. If you find no chip that suggests your card is a magstripe debit card.It is important to note that a megastripe card once blocked will remain locked forever and there is no option to unlock it.
EVM Chip debit cards are safer in comparison to magstripe cards as it is tricky to replicate the encrypted data. ” Majority of the cards issued by banks in India are magstripe cards and the data stored on such cards are vulnerable to skimming and cloning,” said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its official communiqué dated September 22.
