HSBC Malta customers will be unable to use their cards for online transactions or withdraw money from bank ATMs from late on Saturday until early on Monday morning, as the bank overhauls its card system.
What services will be impacted?
The service interruptions will begin at 10.30pm on Saturday evening, when the bank’s 68 ATMs will go offline until 8am on Monday, February 7.
Online transactions using HSBC-issued Visa or Mastercard cards will not be processed from 2am on Sunday morning until 8am on Monday.
Service interruptions are also expected to impact point-of-sale transactions using HSBC-issued cards, starting from 2am on Sunday morning. While POS transactions will still be possible, they will be restricted to a maximum of €350 for Visa debit and credit cards and Mastercard classic cards, and €700 for Mastercard premier customer cards.
The upgrade will also temporarily impact internet banking transactions: payments through online banking will not be available between 2am and 2pm on Sunday.
Bank ATMs will be impacted by the ugrade. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier“Since you will not be able to make any ATM transactions during the aforementioned temporary period, we recommend that you make withdrawals in line with your needs in the preceding week and also carry out any online purchases beforehand, if possible,” the bank advised customers in an e-mail.
All services are expected to be back up and running as normal by Monday at 8am. Customers can expect to receive an SMS once the upgrade is complete.
What is the upgrade about?
The scheduled outage is part of HSBC Malta’s overhaul of its card system, as the bank seeks to introduce contactless technology to its cards. While recently-issued HSBC Malta cards are equipped with NFC technology that enables contactless payments, the system is not yet functional.
Contactless payments will not immediately available following the upgrade, though, with HSBC saying it expects them to be activated by the end of the month.
Payments of €50 and under will not require a PIN code, and users will be required to enter their PIN each time they accumulate a total of €150 in contactless transactions.
Apart from enabling contactless payments, the system upgrade will also allow users to change their bank PIN to any four-digit number they choose and unlock their PIN should their card be blocked. Those changes will also be activated by the end of February, HSBC told customers.
HSBC is also amending its system for calculating interest on credit card payments. As of Sunday, balances that are unpaid after a 56-day grace period will incur interest from the date on which the transaction was booked to customer accounts. Interest will be calculated daily and worked out on the basis of a 360-day year, the bank said.