All These Services Will Not be Available for SBI Customers from September 30

The State Bank of India (SBI) has sent an important message to its customers regarding discontinuation of some services from September 30. The bank has informed credit and debit card holders that if they make international transactions and want to continue the services, then they will have to send a message on a given number.

These steps are being taken in line with new guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding debit and credit cards. These rules were to be initially implemented from January, but got delayed till March. Then, the implementation got postponed further due to COVID-19 situation.

Now, the implementation of the guidelines has started and they will be completely in place from September 30.

Those who make transactions for shopping in the international market and want to continue availing of this service are required to type INTL last four digit of card in the message box and send it to 5676791.

It means that this facility will only be extended to only those who require it. Those who don’t need it will not get it automatically. Customers will now have to choose if they want to use debit or credit card for only domestic transaction or international transaction too.

As per the RBI’s new rules for debit and credit cards, banks will have to offer customers a facility to activate or start online transactions, international or overseas transactions and contactless transactions. The services will not be activated till the users enable them.

One of the guidelines says that debit or credit card holders should separately activate services for international transactions, online transactions, card-not-present transactions and contactless transactions.

For contact-based points of usage in the country, users are required to enable debit or credit card at the time when it is being issued or reissued.

The rules also allow customers to modify transaction limits within their overall card limit for any type of transactions. This facility can be activated round the clock through the respective bank’s mobile application, internet or online banking, ATMs, interactive voice response (IVR) or at a bank’s branch or office.