You may have heard recent news reports of debit card information being stolen from merchants around the country. Rest assured your EBANK debit card is constantly being monitored for potentially fraudulent activity. If abnormal spending habits are identified, our debit card processor will call you to make sure the transaction was truly authorized by you.

The new generation EBANK chip EMV debit card equals greater security for you. In addition to 24-7 monitoring, EBANK debit cards issued now include a small metallic square which is a computer chip. Traditional cards have only the magnetic stripe which stores unchanging data. That unchanging data is easier to replicate by hackers. When your card is used at a compatible terminal the EMV card chip creates a unique transaction code every time the card is used and this code cannot be used again. If a hacker steals the transaction information they will not be able to use it again and an attempted transaction would be denied.

Instead of swiping, the EMV card is read differently. It is called “card dipping”. The card is inserted into a terminal slot and you wait for it to process to verify the card’s legitimacy and create the unique card data for the particular transaction. The process is not as quick as the card swipe so some patience is required. Your card is equipped with both chip and mag-stripe so it still can be used at a retailer who does not yet offer EMV processing.

As always, monitoring your own transaction history is always the best fraud detection. If you notice unauthorized transactions on your account please let us know immediately. The sooner you let us know the less likely you may be responsible for the unauthorized transactions. For more information about fraudulent and unauthorized transactions and how they affect you, please contact one of our Data Integrity Specialists at (515) 223-4753.