Your credit and debit cards may soon stop working online

From March 16, your debit and credit cards may get disabled for online platforms.

The Reserve Bank of India has recently introduced a host of new measures

These changes are being done to curb banking fraud and misuse of cards.

All the new debit and credit cards will only be enabled at ATMs and point of sale terminals.

For online transactions, the cardholder would need to approach the bank.

All new debits and credit cards, including those which are reissued will be affected

At the time of issue/re-issue, all cards shall be enabled only at contact based points of usage within India

Cardholders need to approach their bank to enable any other facilities

Online, international and contactless transactions will need approval by the bank

These services won't be available by default any more.

Customer will need to ask the bank to enable international transactions.

Till now, most banks issued cards that, by default, could be used internationally.

Banks will have the right to deactivate current cards based on risk perception.

Cardholders can also get the facility to set their transaction limits, said RBI.

The regulator has also asked banks to provide 24x7 mobile applications

The whole exercise will be cumbersome for lakhs of card holders across all banks

These customers will have to approach their banks for activation of online services