Breakdown On The Latest CBN Policy That Temporarily Prohibits The Use Of ATM Cards Abroad

No doubt that the Nigerian Naira is witnessing the greatest pressure in recent time especially as regards to foreign exchange.

And as a result of that, the Apex bank in the country which is responsible for dishing out monetary policy to money deposit banks has requested those banks to immediately commence the process of disabling overseas transactions on ATM cards issued to their customers.

Many folks out there have read but misunderstood this directive handed to money deposit banks in the country by CBN which will prevent bank customers from using ATM cards while abroad.

And so we decided to give you a breakdown of this policy in order for you to know what it fully entails.

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Firstly, the policy will prevent those with Naira dominated ATM cards from using their ATM cards outside the country on all types of transactions ranging from withdrawal transaction to online transactions and to POS transactions etc.

But if your ATM card is dominated in foreign currency, let’s say in Dollars, you will not be affected by the policy while abroad as you can still carry out all your transactions there with your Dollar dominated ATM card.

Secondly, while in Nigeria, the policy prevents the use of your Naira dominated card on any transactions that is not in Naira, for example, you will no longer be able to use your Naira ATM cards to transact on online shops that accepts only foreign currencies like E-bay, Amazon, AliExpress, Godaddy etc. but you can still use the cards on online shops like Jumia, Konga, Slot etc. that accept Naira payment.

On the reversal, if you are using foreign currency dominated ATM card, you can no longer do a ATM withdrawal transaction with it here in Nigeria but you can use it to transact on those online shops that accept only foreign currencies.

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For those with Payoneer MasterCard, you should know that your Payoneer card is dominated in foreign currency and with the present policy; you will no longer be able to make ATM withdrawal transactions with your Payoneer while in Nigeria but you can opt to use it on those sites that accept foreign currencies.

Now, what will be the way forward for those that still want to transact online with ease under this new policy?

The suggestion here is that in addition to your current Naira dominated ATM card, you should support that by also getting Dollar dominated ATM cards.

The situation can also be ameliorated by getting a foreign PayPal account which can also ease your online transaction.

Those are all you need to know for now about the recent policy by CBN on the use of ATM cards.