ATM card

A sample picture of a fictional ATM card.

An ATM card (also known as a bank card, client card, key card, or cash card) is a card issued by a bank, credit union, or building society that can be used in an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) for transactions such as: deposits, withdrawals, account information, and other types of transactions, often through interbank networks.

It can also be used on improvised ATMs, such as merchants' card terminals that deliver ATM features without any cash drawer (commonly referred to as mini ATMs).^[1][2] These terminals can also be used as Cashless scrip ATMs by cashing the fund transfer receipt at the merchant's Cashier.^[3]

The dimensions of an ATM card

ATM cards are typically about 86 × 54 mm, i.e. ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 size.

Similar to the size of an Credit Card, Debit Card, and so on.

Non ATM uses of an ATM card

Some ATM cards can also be used:

• at a branch, as identification for in-person transactions
• at merchants, for EFTPOS (Point of Sale / POS) purchases

Unlike an offline debit card that is signature based, in-store purchases or refunds with an ATM card require authentication through a Personal Identification Number (PIN), similar to an online debit card that is also PIN based. This means that ATM cards cannot be used at merchants that are without a direct connection to an interbank network.

For other types of transactions through telephone or online banking, this may be performed with an ATM card without in-person authentication. This includes account balance inquiries, electronic bill payments, or in some cases, online purchases (see Interac Online).

ATM card networks

In some banking networks, the two functions of ATM cards and debit cards are combined into a single card called simply as a debit card or also commonly called as bank card. These are able to perform banking tasks at ATMs and also make point-of-sale transactions, with both features using a PIN.

Canada's Interac and Europe's Maestro are examples of networks that link bank accounts with point-of-sale equipment.

Some debit card networks also started their lives as ATM card networks before evolving into full fledged debit card networks, example of these networks are: Development Bank of Singapore (DBS)'s Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) and Bank Central Asia (BCA)'s Debit BCA, both of them were later on adopted by other banks (with Prima Debit being the Prima interbank network version of Debit BCA).

ATM cards misuse

Due to increased illegal copies of cards with a magnetic stripe, the European Payments Council established a Card Fraud Prevention Task Force in 2003 that spawned a commitment to migrate all ATMs and POS applications to use a chip-and-PIN solution until the end of 2010.^[4] The "SEPA for Cards"^[5] has completely removed the magnetic stripe requirement from the former Maestro debit cards, and the savings banks have announced that they will ship their debit cards without a magnetic stripe beginning in 2012.^[6] Making them unuseable in any ATM or merchant that is only capable of reading a magnetic stripe card.

See also

• Credit card
• Debit card

Notes