Dos and Don’ts while entering your Debit Card PIN at Retail Outlets
From December 1st, 2013 onwards, the Reserve Bank of India has made it mandatory for debit card holders to use their ATM PIN for carrying out debit card transactions at any retail store.
To put this system into place, all banks were instructed by the RBI to upgrade their Point of Sale (PoS) infrastructure. The deadline was November 30th.
Parag Rao, head of card payment products and merchant acquiring service at HDFC Bank said, “Our back-end system is in place and we have made changes in all our PoS and merchant outlets to accept PIN (basically ATM PIN) from tomorrow.”
The primary advantage of this measure is clearly the reduction in cases of fraud. Without this system in place, if your card goes into the wrong hands, then it will be used for illegal transactions at retail stores that accept card payment.
However, one plausible disadvantage of punching your PIN at a merchant store is revealing your PIN to others which include the cashier and other customers in your proximity.
So here are some Dos and Don’ts to remember while you are entering your PIN at a retail store for a debit card transaction:
1. Never give away your debit card PIN to the cashier, even if they ask for it. Ask for the machine and punch the pin yourself.
2. While you are entering your PIN, ensure that it is not being watched by anyone (shoulder surfing). To avoid this, ideally all retail stores should provide customers with a separate enclosure where they can punch in their PIN; something similar to what is set up in a voting booth.
3. If you feel that the cashier or other people might be watching your PIN, then hide the key panel with one hand and enter the PIN with the other. It is natural to feel a little hesitant about this, but it is for your own safety.
4. At certain retail stores, entering your debit card PIN by yourself may be a little troublesome and you have to let the cashier do it for you. In such cases, prefer carrying cash instead of using your debit card.
5. If you have used your card for international transactions (even once), then your bank must replace the card’s magnetic stripe with EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) chip-based cards. This has been instructed by the RBI. If your bank has not done so, please make an inquiry about it.
In the wake of this security measure mandated by the RBI, State Bank of India has issued a notice advising customers not to hand over their ATM-cum-Debit card to anyone.
The RBI has also stated that, any losses incurred by customers due to misuse of their cards post 30th November, will be borne by the bank the customers are associated with. Needless to say, if you happen to lose your card and incur any loss, then approach your bank immediately.
Here’s a blog post where Quick Heal CTO, Mr. Sanjay Katkar speaks about how to recover your money if your bank account is hacked or your card details are stolen.
Data Source:
[https://profit.ndtv.com]
[https://economictimes.indiatimes.co]