Magnetic stripe on debit, credit cards to be disabled by Oct 1

SINGAPORE: Consumers planning to use their credit and debit cards when travelling overseas will soon have to activate them first. This is because the magnetic stripe on these cards will be disabled for overseas use by October 1.

While local credit and debit card transactions in Singapore are already being processed using EMV chip technology, the magnetic stripe is still used for card transactions in countries such as the US and South Korea.

Merchants in some countries such as the UK, Europe, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia also may not accept cards with EMV chips. This means cardholders travelling overseas will need to activate the magnetic stripe by contacting their banks.

The move is part of the industry's efforts to boost consumers’ protection. Data encoded on magnetic stripe cards is more easily copied than the data on chip cards. Early last year, DBS Bank was hit by card skimming fraudsters who withdrew S$500,000 from its ATMs.


Simon Song, senior vice president of consumer banking group at DBS Bank, advised consumers to be careful when using their cards overseas. "If possible, be there when the cashier is swiping your card so that you know that he is not doing something else with the plastic," he said.

Banks may choose to exempt certain customers who travel overseas frequently and those who are based abroad.

"When implementing this measure, we seek to strike a fine balance between upholding the highest level of security and customer's convenience. Hence, customers who are frequent travellers in the last twelve months will be exempted from this measure," said Wong Chung Yee, head of core cards and unsecured lending at OCBC Bank.

Wong added: "If they wish to have their magnetic stripes deactivated, they can do so via our self-service channels."

UOB, which will also exempt customers based on their usage patterns, said it will still "advise all customers to disable the magnetic stripe on their cards when returning from overseas trips", in order to minimise the risk of unauthorised transactions.

Citibank said it is giving customers the flexibility to choose either time-bound or perpetual activation for overseas usage.

Some banks told Channel NewsAsia they are gearing up to implement this deactivation at an earlier date. HSBC said it plans to implement the disabling of the magnetic stripes within the month of August.

HSBC added that it will exempt customers and auto-enroll their credit and debit cards for overseas use if, according to its records, they have a history of overseas use of their cards, or have an overseas address, so that they can enjoy greater convenience without the need to enroll their cards each time they travel.

Meanwhile, DBS Bank and Standard Chartered are looking at implementing the new measures by September 22 and September 30 respectively. DBS Bank added that this part of its continuous efforts to enhance card security. Customers can allow or disallow overseas magnetic stripe transactions for both overseas ATMs and point-of-sale terminals at any DBS/POSB ATM and branch or internet banking.