CBN to cardholders: You’re liable for fraud you suffer and other key facts every PoS user must know

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Of course, you may not know that each time a fraud is committed on your card, you are held liable and may not be able to get your money back according to rules set for Point of Sale (PoS) operations by Nigeria’s banking sector regulatory authority.

[su_quote cite=”Central Bank of Nigeria”]The cardholder shall be held liable for fraud committed with his card arising from the misuse of his PIN or his card.[/su_quote]

Cardholders enjoy the breeze of regular banking services that allows them to pay via Pos, ATM machines and several other alternative channels.

The services providers usually pitch card, whether debit or credit as more convenient channels for convenient shopping, payments and some other banking services that don’t require you to visit the banking halls.

Thanks to the cashless drive by the nation’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), growth of e-commerce and the rapid springing up of new malls across the country, use of cards by Nigerians has grown in the last few years.

According to CBN, “cardholder means any person to whom a payment card is issued and whose account will eventually be debited for settlement of transactions performed with the payment card.”

According to the CBN rules guiding the use of cards via PoS, every cardholder may want to get acquaint with these underlisted rules:

A cardholder shall:

• Store the payment card and protect his PIN with due care

• Not keep his payment card together with the PIN

• Notify the issuer without delay about missing, stolen, damaged, lost or destroyed card

• Not make available the payment card to unauthorized persons.

• The cardholder may withdraw from the contract for payment card without prior notice to the issuer provided he does not owe for any charges or transactions on the payment card.

• The cardholder shall present, when required by a merchant, a document confirming his identity.

• The cardholder shall receive value for the operations performed by means of a payment card, and by so doing, the holder commits himself to pay the amount of the operations together with charges due to the issuer from a specified account.

• The cardholder shall be held liable for fraud committed with his card arising from the misuse of his PIN or his card.

• The cardholder shall be entitled to receive a receipt or any other form of evidence at the time a transaction is performed with his/her card.

• The cardholder shall be entitled to receive, within a reasonable period, at least monthly, a statement of all transactions performed with his/her card.

• If a cardholder notifies his bank that an error involving his card has occurred, the institution must investigate and resolve the claim within 3 working days.

• The cardholder shall be given reasonable notice before changes are made to fees levied on his/her card and be given the option to discontinue usage of card to avoid such changes in fees without penalty.

• A cardholder shall be given reasonable notice before changes are made to the terms and conditions of his card contract and shall be given the option to opt-out of the card contract without penalty.

• The cardholder shall be entitled to privacy and information on his card account cannot be shared with third parties unless:

1. a)  With express customer approval or

1. b)  In cases of customer default, where information can be shared with credit bureaus and collection/recovery agents or

1. c)  In cases where information is requested by valid order of a competent Nigerian court/authority or

1. d)  In cases where it is necessary to prevent fraud