Stopping your bank card is an effective but restrictive way to protect your account. Before you get to this point, another security feature from your bank could save you some hassle.
The bank card is by far the preferred target of scammers and criminals of all kinds. Among the various means of payment fraud, this instrument alone accounts for 40% of illicit operationsfor a total of 496 million euros in 2023. The bank card is therefore a precious and sensitive object, to which particular attention must be paid.
In the event of loss, theft or hacking, the good reflex is to contact your bank immediately in order to cancel your card as soon as possible. However, this operation has a drawback: it is irreversible and requires ordering a completely new card. And while waiting to receive it, everyday purchases are complicated.
However, it sometimes happens that we can no longer find a bank card, without being certain that we have lost it or that it has been stolen. Or that we spot a strange payment on our account statement, but are not sure whether it is a fraudulent transaction. In these cases, opposing your card may then be disproportionate.
In fact, it sometimes happens that you get a real scare by being unable to get your hands on your bank card, before finally finding it at the bottom of a bag or under a pile of mail. Or we worry for days about a strange transaction on our account, before remembering that we subscribed to some service last month.
In case of doubt, to avoid triggering the heavy machinery of the opposition and its consequences, there is another solution which offers the same protections but is not definitive: temporary suspension. This method allows you to temporarily block all transactions linked to a bank card (withdrawal, payment in store or on the Internet).
Compared to traditional opposition, it has several advantages: the temporary suspension can be carried out instantly and at any time, day or night, on a smartphone from the bank application, or on a computer from the customer area online. And if you subsequently find your card, or the suspicious transactions on your account ultimately turn out to be legitimate, you can then deactivate the suspension just as easily.
You can thus protect your money while you do the necessary research or verification, without permanently blocking your card and forcing you to order another one. All major French banks offer such a function: Crédit Agricole, Caisse d’Épargne, Banque Populaire, Crédit Mutuel, BNP Paribas, Société Générale and La Banque Postale.
Its name may vary slightly from one establishment to another, sometimes being called temporary locking or temporary blocking, but its principle remains the same. You will easily find it on the mobile application or online space of your bank, certainly the “Bank card”, “Means of payment” section or a similar title. And if you cannot find this function, you can obviously contact your advisor to check if your bank card contract includes this option.