The account holders of State Bank of India (SBI) have three days before their magstripe debit and credit cards are permanently blocked. Following a mandate by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to phase out old magstripe cards, the biggest lender in India has asked its customers to upgrade to EMV chip cards by December 31, 2018.

SBI is offering to replace old ATM cards for its users with the new EMV chip cards without any charges. “Get the ultimate shield! As per RBI mandate, replace your Magstripe Card with the EMV Chip Card and continue availing debit card facilities. Apply before 31st December 2018 and get it for free,” SBI posted in a recent tweet.

The EMV chip is a microprocessor that stores user data in a more secure way than the magnetic stripe on the older debit or credit cards. The EMV chip technology, named after its founders Europay, MasterCard and Visa, uses both dynamic and static authentication, to create dynamic data every time the debit card is used for a transaction. This makes cloning the card or skimming user data off it impossible.

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Considering these benefits, the Reserve Bank of India has asked the banks to ensure that their customers migrate to debit and credit cards with EMV chips by the end of this year. The RBI notification states that all cards will have to be migrated irrespective of their validity by December 31, 2018.

To identify if your debit card is an EMV chip card look for a chip located on the center-left positionof the front of the Debit Card. If there is no such chip, then it is a magstripe card.

If you do need to get an EMV chip card, you can either have one issued from your home branch, or visit the SBI online portal to place a request for a replacement card.

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Here’s how you can place the request online.

1. Go to SBI netbanking website – onlinesbi.com

2. Log in to your SBI Internet Banking account

3. Go to eServices

4. Select ATM card services

5. Request ATM/Debit card

If you have already placed a request for a new EMV chip debit card online, but have not received one, visit your SBI home branch for further information about the dispatch status.

Courtesy by : Daily Hunt