Limits Planned At Cash Points To Fight Credit Card Criminals

Home > Business > Finance

print dictionary print

Limits Planned At Cash Points To Fight Credit Card Criminals


To defend against the risk of credit card crimes, the Financial Supervisory Service said Monday that it plans to lower the daily limit that persons can withdraw from cash machines and encourage cardholders to put a ceiling on their daily cash advance allowances.

As concerns rise that the lack of controls on automated teller machines invites crime, the financial watchdog agency plans to reduce the amount of money that individuals can withdraw per day from ATMs to 5 million won ($3,850) or less. That limit is now typically 7 million won to 11 million won.

Ceilings on cash advances are usually determined by the banks that issue the credit cards based on a customer's credit history. But the supervisory agency wants cardholders to set the ceilings themselves. If the agency's plans take effect, customers whose daily cash advance ceilings are set at 5 million won, for example, would be able to reduce their caps to 2 million won in order to limit the losses they would incur if their cards were stolen.

The financial agency said it has also asked the Korea Financial Telecommuni-cations & Clearings Institute, which processes the payment systems of member banks, and banks and payment card companies to reduce daily cash advance maximums, and is seeking to give cardholders the right to eliminate, as a safeguard, their cash advance services.

The government has encouraged the use of credit cards in an effort to make transactions transparent. That has led to soaring credit card usage rates since last year, but a commensurate rise in card-related troubles has also occurred; the agency handled more than 1,000 related complaints in 2000, 60 percent more than the previous year.

by Yi Jung-jae

Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)