BancABC has just informed its prepaid Visa cardholders that they are phasing out the current/old prepaid Visa cards and replacing them with new cards. The bank has sent out SMS messages to those who currently have prepaid Visa cards to visit their nearest BancABC branch in order to make the switch. Those who want to make the switch have to bring their ID. According to BancABC the changeover is for free so you will not be charged for the new card and your funds will be transferred to the new card.

Dear Valued Customer, Visit your nearest BancABC branch to collect your new prepaid VISA card. Your new card will replace your current, funded VISA card. Kindly carry your national ID to collect your new card before 25 August 2022.

The SMS from BancABC to cardholders

Those we spoke to did not explain why BancABC is doing this. The prepaid cards are chipped which and not magnetic which means that this is not about security as far as we can tell. We can only speculate in the absence of information. Could it be related to the system issues BancABC has had on this platform for a while now? It could be BancABC is switching over to a new system and they could not merely upgrade software and had to change cards too. Given the considerable expense of phasing out old cards and the inconvenience they wouldn’t have taken the decision to do so lightly.