Financial institutions constantly balance the need for increased security(protecting themselves from fraud) with customer service. It’s a very delicate balance that is constantly shifting. New fraud schemes emerge, causing new policies that frustrate customers; policies are loosened to increase customer satisfaction, then a new fraud scheme takes over; rinse and repeat. The average person doesn’t see this, so there is understandable frustration when you’ve been doing things a certain way for twenty years and then, suddenly, you’re told you can’t. One area where this circle of fraud appears is with printing debit cards inside the bank.
You probably noticed some banks allow you to open an account and receive a debit card the same day. Other banks need to order you a debit card that arrives 1-2 weeks later. At the same time, you noticed that Bank A used to print debit cards, but don’t currently, and Bank B didn’t print cards last year, now they do. Banks swap it around every 5-10 years.
Here is what’s happening: fraud. Anyone trying to rip off a bank with a new account wants a debit card on the same day. The plan is to open the account, deposit fake checks the first couple of days, and withdraw the money from the ATM as soon as funds are available. By the time the checks get rejected by the other bank as fraudulent, the cash is already gone with the crooks and won’t be coming back. They do it this way because the ATM doesn’t ask questions. It’s also easier to hide their identities on an ATM camera as opposed to inside the bank.
When crooks find out a bank or credit union issues debit cards same-day, they swarm. They love it because it’s easier to get away with stolen cash. Unfortunately, it impacts the people who genuinely need a same-day card and have no intention of stealing anything(which is most of us). Like everything else in life, a small percentage of dishonest people take away the good things in life from honest people who truly need them.
Once the amount of loss reaches a chosen threshold, banks stop issuing debit cards same-day. They go back to ordering and shipping cards instead. While this is happening, the banks that DON’T issue debit cards same-day have received so many complaints about it that they finally decide to do it from a customer service perspective. So, the crooks figure this out, switch banks, continue the scheme, and the cycle repeats itself.
The easiest way for banks to prevent fraud here is to stop printing debit cards. It nips a LOT of this in the bud. So, from a business perspective, why wouldn’t you take simple steps to prevent massive losses to your company? It makes good business sense.
For the people who get upset about it, the question becomes, “Why are you in such a hurry to get a debit card?” If the reason is because your existing card was lost or stolen, then it makes complete sense to want a new one the same day. But that simply doesn’t happen that often. It’s rare. Most of us with one debit card will have a second card, and probably a credit card on top of that. So, we can afford to wait for a mailed replacement card. It simply throws up too many red flags when someone opens an account and gets angry when they can’t leave with a debit card. Most of those people don’t finish opening the account before they walk out. There’s something fishy about that. That business plan prevents more loss than the revenue it missed out on that would’ve come in.
Hopefully I’ve helped you discover why your bank no longer issues debit cards inside the bank. Honest people never think about stuff like this, or at least may not be aware of how much of it occurs. Crooks are alive and well, and constantly looking for ways to rip off banks. Maybe this will help you appreciate why policies and procedures change so much. A LOT of change is driven primarily by fraud.
