BBL ready to waive charges for switch to chip-enhanced card

According to Pochanee Kongkalai, Bangkok Bank’s senior vice president, BBL has informed existing customers still using cards with the magnetic strip that they can covert free-of-charge to a chip-enhanced card. 

BBL is so far, the only local bank to have issued the chip-enhanced ATM and debit cards to its cardholders free-of-charge. Banks usually charge cardholders between Bt100 to Bt200, before issuing them with a new card.

BBL has currently issued 17 million ATM and debit cards to its customers, but only 2.5 million cardholders are using the chip-enhanced versions.

The new chip-enhanced cards were introduced to prevent fraud by card skimming and cloning.

Most of BBL’s white-collar customers have already converted to the chip-enhanced ATM and debit cards, but “blue-collar” customers have not been so ready to take up the changes as they are less able to find time to visit the bank, and therefore less likely to follow up on information announcing the changes. 

Pochanee said the bank believed its message to customers about the card changes would lead to a larger number of its customers wanting to make the switch to the chip-enhanced card. 

The bank has also set up a team to monitor fraud, including unusual transactions using ATM and debit cards.

Thai banks have until 2015 to comply with the central bank requirement and make the switch from cards using the magnetic strip to the cards using a chip. 

Siam Commercial Bank has also announced that it will make the switch to the chip-enhanced card from the end of 2014, starting with new customers. 

Krungthai Bank will also begin converting 3,200 of its ATM machines in March next year so that they can accept the new cards. The bank has 8,550 ATM machines, all of which are ready to accept the new cards by the 2015 deadline, said Weidt Nuchjalearn, the bank’s first senior executive vice-president. KTB currently has 10 million active ATM and debit cardholders.

KTB also plans to start switching from the magnetic-strip cards to the chip-enhanced cards next year – in line with its plans to upgrade its ATM machines. 

To encourage customers to make the conversion, KTB is also considering waiving charges to its customers, Nuchjalearn said.