Beginning March 16, newly issued debit and credit cards won't allow international or online transactions unless asked for

According to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) January 15 notification, any existing credit or debit card that has not been used for international or online transaction will be mandatorily disabled for these purposes.

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) new measures are set to come in force beginning March 16, 2020.

RBI notification said, "At the time of issue or re-issue, all cards shall be enabled for use only at contact based points of usage [ATMs and Point of Sale (PoS) devices] within India. Issuers shall provide cardholders a facility for enabling card not present (domestic and international) transactions, card present (international) transactions and contactless transactions."

RBI further said, "For existing cards, issuers may take a decision, based on their risk perception, whether to disable the card not present (domestic and international) transactions, card present (international) transactions and contactless transaction rights. Existing cards which have never been used for online/international/contactless transactions shall be mandatorily disabled for this purpose."

Banks will provide round-the-clock services via mobile banking, internet banking, ATMs, call centres, etc, to their customers to alter these features on credit and debit cards.

RBI said, "The provisions of this circular are not mandatory for prepaid gift cards and those used at mass transit systems."