【What's Up #04】Your Chinese Bank Cards Might not Work, Soon!

THAT'S RIGHT!

In order to strengthen the security in the banking sector, China is stopping magnetic strip cards from 1st of May, 2017. The reason behind this change is that the magnetic strip cards appear to be more vulnerable (stealing information) than the cards that use a chip for transactions.

What exactly is a magnetic strip card?

how to know my bank card type?

There are three basic types of bank cards.

1) Magnetic strip Card (Only strip transaction)

Transactions through cards with the magnetic stripe on them are done via swiping. After the swipe, your information remain in the POS or the ATM machines, which is proof that these type of cards are less secure. The card can even lose its magnetic property from frequent usage.

2) Chip card (Card insertion transactions or Quick Pay)

These kind of cards will have a chip that contain all of the required information. The chip has a more complex method of storing data and your information is safer in them.

3) Chip card with magnetic strip (All the above mentioned payment methods)

Even though these cards contain chip, they also have magnetic strip on it and that makes it vulnerable as the ones with just the magnetic strip on it.

ONLY THE CHIP CARDS (TYPE 2 - WITHOUT THE BLACK MAGNETIC STRIP) WILL BE ISSUED BY BANKS FROM MAY. DUE TO A FACT THAT UPDATING ALL ATMS AND POS MACHINES TO BE COMPATIBLE WITH CHIP CARDS TAKES SOME TIME. FOR NOW, ALL THE THREE TYPES OF CARDS CAN BE USED AS USUAL. BUT, IT WOULD BE A WISE CHOICE TO UPGRADE YOUR BANK CARDS FOR SAFER BANKING. 

How to upgrade to Chip card?

Carry your Passport and bank cards to get this free upgrade, but some banks may charge you 5 yuan for this service. You can also request them to keep the original card number, so that your information doesn't change.

So, if you have got any bank cards with magnetic strip on it, upgrade it to the chip card as soon as possible.

JSU-OEC