Why you need an anonymous bank card

Probably everyone has come across unnamed bank cards or at least heard about them. Why are they produced, what are the differences from nominal plastic and are there any advantages? In these matters, Moskovskaya Pravda dealt with experts.

Many people think that unnamed cards are almost an anonymous means of payment. But it’s not.

– Indeed, when entering card details in an online store, you do not indicate your name and the seller does not know who his client is. However, just like personalized cards, non-personalized cards in our country are still issued only after the client has been identified by passport. This means that it would be completely wrong to call it anonymous, ”explained Ksenia Artemyeva, COO of the Fast River fintech platform.

Why then do you need an unnamed bank card?

– Unnamed bank cards, as a rule, are issued only for one reason – the speed of issue. Such a card can be obtained at a bank branch on the same day, directly from the operator. A bank employee simply fills in the data on the passport and immediately issues a card. Everything about everything takes about 15 – 20 minutes. And now you have a full-fledged means of payment in your pocket. While plastic with initials must first be “printed”, and before that, an application must be left for it at a bank branch or in a mobile application.

That is, ordering an unnamed bank card is convenient if a person is in a hurry to get a means of payment. For example, this is relevant in case of loss of a personalized card, if there is no time to wait until a new one is issued.

Pavel Utkin, a leading lawyer at the Parthenon United Legal Center, added that such cards are usually offered to be issued in shopping centers or supermarkets.

– Where you get it right away, we are talking about an unnamed card. Such a card can be used as an additional one, for example, if it gives some bonuses or discounts, for example, it participates in a bonus program from a large supermarket, gives an increased cashback at gas stations, and so on,” the lawyer noted.

As for other possibilities of using an unnamed card, in general they do not differ from the nominal one.

– You can also pay offline and online with an unnamed card, withdraw money from ATMs, send and receive transfers, and it is displayed in your mobile bank in the same way. There are also no differences in the degree of security. All cards have a chip, a magnetic tape and a 3Dsec function for transaction authorization. A nice bonus is that the maintenance of such cards in banks is usually free, – said Ksenia Artemyeva.

The disadvantages of nameless plastic, according to her, include limits on transfers and withdrawals, which banks usually set much less than nominal ones.

– Also, the owners of such cards can withdraw cash only at ATMs, this cannot be done through the cash desks of banks. Well, since the card is not registered, it will also not work to receive benefits, pensions, social benefits, wages, credit or credit on such plastic, ”the expert clarified.

Can an unnamed bank card be truly anonymous? Maybe, if we are talking about the so-called gift cards.

“You can pay with them in certain stores, sometimes even put money there, some cards of this type allow this possibility, but not all,” said Pavel Utkin. – In addition, nothing more can be done with it, for example, you will not be able to make a purchase on the Internet.

In general, in comparison with a full-fledged personalized card, there are no big advantages in a non-personalized one. Even its freeness is a very relative bonus, since today even personalized cards, subject to certain conditions, can be serviced free of charge. But the owners of registered plastic have much more opportunities than the owners of unnamed ones.

Alena Bodrienko.

Photo by Moskovskaya Pravda