ATM card: Difference between revisions

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An ATM card is any payment card issued by a financial institution that enables a customer to access an automated teller machine (ATM) in order to perform transactions such as deposits, cash withdrawals, obtaining account information, etc. ATM cards are known by a variety of names such as bank card, MAC (money access card), client card, key card or cash card, among others. Most payment cards, such as debit and credit cards can also function as ATM cards, although ATM-only cards are also available. The use of a credit card to withdraw cash at an ATM is treated differently to an POS transaction, usually attracting interest charges from the date of the cash withdrawal. Charge and proprietary cards cannot be used as ATM cards. Interbank networks allow the use of ATM cards at ATMs of private operators and financial institutions other than those of the institution that issued the cards.

ATM cards can also be used on improvised ATMs such as "mini ATMs", merchants' card terminals that deliver ATM features without any cash drawer.^[1][2] These terminals can also be used as cashless scrip ATMs by cashing the receipts they issue at the merchant's point of sale.^[3]

The first ATM cards were issued in 1967 and 1969 by, respectively, Barclays in London and Chemical Bank in Long Island, New York.^[4]

The size of ATM cards is 85.60 × 53.98 mm (3.370 × 2.125 in) and rounded corners with a radius of 2.88–3.48 mm, in accordance with ISO/IEC 7810#ID-1, the same size as other payment cards, such as credit, debit and other cards. They also have an embossed bank card number conforming with the ISO/IEC 7812 numbering standard.

Some ATM cards can also be used:

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

Unlike an offline bank card that is signature based, in-store EFTPOS 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).

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).

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.^[5] The "SEPA for Cards"^[6] has completely removed the magnetic stripe requirement from the former Maestro debit cards.

• Payment card
• Credit card
• Debit card