Signing on your credit card bill will be made obsolete at the beginning of July as Bank Negara has issued an industry-wide initiative that mandates all banks in Malaysia to switch to the PIN & PAY system.
Claimed to be a more secure payment method, the PIN & PAY system would require you to authorized a payment via credit card, debit card, charge card or prepaid card by inputting your PIN code into a terminal. Once verified, your transaction will be completed and you don’t need to sign on the receipt. Whether or not the PIN & PAY system would affect overseas transaction is something we don’t yet know.
Another feature of this new PIN & PAY enabled cards is that it supports contactless payment. For transactions below RM250, you will be able to wave or tap your card on a contactless card reader to complete your transaction. A PIN is not required for this sort of payment.
That said, you’ll will need to take a trip to the bank to acquire a card that supports the PIN & PAY system as cards that were issued before the 1st of March do not have this feature. Right now, most banking institutions in Malaysia such as Maybank, Citibank and CIMB Bank have announced that they will be introducing PIN & PAY cards in phases.
