All new bank cards are with a chip

Aromatic rose, exotic iris flower, seductive apple and juicy grapes are the “faces” of the new bank cards of UniCredit Bulbank. For the first time the new vision was presented today at a special “fruits and flowers” press conference in the University botanic garden in Sofia.

The designers look of the plastic is combined with the safety of the chip technology. All UniCredit Bulbank branches started offering the new cards with a chip, providing a significantly higher protection compared to the present magnetic stripe.

The most popular debit cards Visa Electron and Maestro are with a chip, as well as the high class credit cards Visa and MasterCard. UniCredit Bulbank debit cards are exempt of taxes for issuing, account opening, annual fee, point of sale or internet purchases and in addition offer overdraft of up to 4 monthly salaries. The new credit cards by UniCredit Bulbank have an grace period of up to 45 days and allow for a repayment of only a min percentage of the outstanding credit amount.

Till now cards with a chip were offered only at Bulbank branches but now they are available in the three times bigger network of the merged UniCredit Bulbank. The merger of Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank formed the largest Bulgarian bank UniCredit Bulbank as of the end of April 2007. The cards of the former Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank are valid through to the expiry date but upon request clients can exchange them with a new card with a chip in the branches and offices.

SMS notification for each transaction – higher protection for your card

Cardholders of the all new issued or already existing cards of UniCredit Bulbank (including cards issued by former Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank) are offered SMS notification for every card transaction. The service is introduced for the first time for the cards of former HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank and it’s very popular among the cardholders of Bulbank. In addition, UniCredit Bulbank invests in new modern systems for monitoring bank cards transactions including the SMS notification.

Investment in infrastructure – the other side of the story

Besides the chip on the cards, UniCredit Bulbank is modernizing its all ATM and POS terminals. “The chip cards issuing is only the one side of the story. At the present moment all cards issued in Bulgaria, even this with a chip, have an additional magnetic stripe. If used on ATM’s and POS terminals, which are not chip compliant, the transactions are processed though the magnetic stripe. In this case the transaction is not protected by the chip. Therefore we advise our clients with chip cards to use only EMV POS terminals and ATM’s because they automatically recognize the chip, not the magnetic stripe”, said Levon Hampartzoumian, CEO of UniCredit Bulbank. All POS terminals and ATM’s of UniCredit Bulbank are chip compliant. More then 450 ATM’s and 3100 POS terminals are available to the clients in the country as of the end of May.

According to Mr. Levon Hampartzoumian the bank card safety depends on the bank investments and the responsibility of the cardholder. “You should take care of your card the way you take good care of your wallet. You should not share the PIN code with anyone the way you don’t announce the content of your wallet. It’s very important to know that even the bank doesn’t know your PIN code and will never ask you for it. Any attempt made by a third party to find out your PIN code is a signal for potential card fraud”, explains Levon Hampartzoumian. Recommended for usage are ATM’s in the bank branches, administrative buildings and hotels. For safety reasons is also useful to possess different cards for different kinds of payment / for internet, shops, ATM’s and so on.

UniCredit Bulbank is a member of a first European bank group UniCredit Group. UniCredit Bulbank is a leading bank in Bulgaria with assets of over BGN 7.5 billion and over one million clients. The bank is also a leader in the cards business with over 720 000 issued cards in the end of May, 34 000 of which are credit and over of 3700 are with a chip.