Online Banking, Mobile Banking, Credit/Debit Card Safety and Staying Alert to avoid unauthorized transactions.

Monday, 21 August 2017

4 EFFECTIVE WAYS OF DESTROYING YOUR LOST/STOLEN DEBIT CARD

Did you know that the information on your debit card is as important if not more important than your debit card pin? Most people think losing their debit card will not do any harm to their bank account so long they are the only one that knows their card pin. Trust me a fraudster does not need the cardholder’s pin to initiate an unauthorized transaction on the cardholders account, just
with Card PAN, Expiry date of the card and the CVV2, they can initiate any amount of transaction online provided the account is sufficiently funded.

So, when you think your card is no longer in your wallet or it's no longer
where you kept it or the card is with you but you kept on getting debit alert
for transactions done in Lagos when you are in Abuja, don’t panic, that card
has been compromised and needs to be hot-listed(blocked/destroyed).

We will look at different ways of rendering the card useless to whoever has
it. The traditional way of blocking a lost or stolen card is by calling the
customer care line of your bank and there is no guaranty that their line will
connect immediately for them to help in blocking the card.

Let’s use GTBank as a case study, they have so many retail customers that are
all calling at the same time, so there is no way that your call will be picked immediately
you called, you will need to stay on the line for at times 3 – 5mins before you get connected
to a customer care representative.

Trust me, 5 mins is more than enough time to use that card on Amazon.com. so
why live in the traditional way when there are much more faster and easy ways
to destroy that stolen card yourself and it will only take few seconds to
block the card.

1. BLOCK VIA SMS BANKING: Still using GTBank as my case study, the good thing
about this bank is that they are very innovative, knowing fully well that they
have lots of customers, they always think outside the box to come up with ways
of satisfying these customers by introducing different self-service options to
help ease their banking transactions.

SMS Banking simply means banking via the SMS platform, not like you can carry
out all your banking needs via SMS, but you can communicate with your account
for some immediate action to be taken on your account. All you just need to
do is to send a text message with the action you want to be taken to designated
mobile number and within seconds, you will get an SMS alert for successful transaction.
To block your card using the SMS Banking Platform, just send Hotlist, Nuban
Account Number to 08076665555 i.e Hotlist 0122864572 to 08076665555. Hotlist
is the banking term for block or destroy when it comes to debit cards.

Note: You must send this text message using the registered phone number on
your account, if you use a different number, it won’t go through. It must be
the same mobile number you receive alert on. There are so many other self-services
you can carry out using the SMS Banking, click here to learn more.


2. BLOCK VIA THE ATM: In a situation, whereby the victim also lost their mobile
phone along with their debit card, and has no other way of calling their bank
or sending a text message, the next option will be to visit the nearest ATM
Terminal preferably GTBank ATM (for GTBank Cardholders) because am very sure
they have that option on their terminal. When on the terminal, just press any
button to reveal the different card-less options, then press Card Hotlist option,
input your mobile number (number linked to the account), then the last four digit
on the card (Card PAN), click on continue to complete the process.

Within seconds, the card is blocked and the account is safe again.

3. BLOCK VIA THE INTERNET BANKING: The Internet Banking Platform,
also known as Online Banking Platform enables customer initiate their basic banking
transactions by login on to the Bank's website to access the platform, you can initiate
transactions such as Transfers, Airtime purchase, Bill payments, Flight booking,
Card request and lots more. Click here to learn more about Internet Banking Platform.
(For GTBank Internet banking platform)

• Log in to the platform with your User ID and Password
• Then scroll down to Card
• Under Card click on Card Hot-list
• Select the account the card is linked to, the expiry date and the reason for blocking the card
• Input the answer to your secret question
• Then click on continue to block card.

The card will be blocked within seconds of completing this process and will be
rendered useless to whoever has it.

4. BLOCK VIA MOBILE BANKING (GTWORLD): Mobile Banking Platform is the lighter
version of the Internet Banking on a mobile device. It does basically the same
thing with the Online Banking, you log in with the same User ID and Password,
just that it has its own limitations. GTWorld is an upgraded version of the GTBank Mobile App,
its a Platform that has both your banking and social life in one app, Amazing isn't it? Learn more

To block a lost or stolen card on the GTWorld Mobile App,

• Log in to the platform with your User ID and Password
• Then scroll forward to Card
• Under Card click on Block my Card
• Select the reason for blocking the card then continue
• Enter your Four digit pin or Token code depending on your option
• Then click on continue to block card.

Blocking your lost card has been made easy, in the case of a robbery attack
or snatched at gun point, there is no point struggling with the robbers, just
let them have what they request for. Your life is much more precious than any
material thing, just use any of the above method to delete the card from the
surface of the earth.

Just to add, you can also call the customer care agent of your Bank to have
the card destroyed but always try the self-service options first before
calling your bank.

Hope this is helpful, please feel free to leave a comment below if i missed anything, still
researching on other banks, will put that up when the information is complete.

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