SBI is ensuring you won’t ever bother again about forgetting your debit card in the ATM machine

Now, no more forgetting that debit/credit card at the teller machine or checking twice and thrice before leaving a shopping mall in case we left the card at the billing counters! Here’s introducing the contactless debit and credit cards that come with a fraud cover of Rs 1 lakh, by the State Bank of India.

The contactless cards uses near field technology (NFC) that enables users to make payments by waiving or tapping the card near the contactless reader instead of swiping or dipping it.

"The NFC technology makes the contactless cards very secure as the card never leaves your hand thereby reducing the risk of card loss and fraud. The customers can tap or wave the card at the POS machine enter the pin and complete the transaction to pay at busy locations," said bank said in a statement to media.

To add to its merits, the card will come with emergency replacement facility anywhere in the world.

"We will tie-up with campus, hospitals and corporate for card," said SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya speaking to media while launching sbiINTOUCH card at Starbucks, as per a report in the Economic Times. She was optimistic that once RBI gets comfortable with NFC technology it would increase the minimum limit from Rs 2,000. The bank has tied up with Shoppers Stop, Reliance Retail, Big Bazaar and Starbucks.

The country's largest bank, SBI, will upgrade all its existing 2.20 lakh point of sale (PoS) machines to NFC technology. The bank currently has 5,000 NFC enabled machines and it plans to launch 10,000 new PoS which will accept contactless cards.

SBI is the country's largest issue of debit card and the third largest issuer of credit card after HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. As on December 2014, SBI has issued as many as 14.7 crore debit cards and 30 lakh credit cards.

(Image credits: thinkstock)