Controlling Debit Card Transactions Through App

What are the different types of debit card transactions I can control/freeze using my app?

Freezing debit card transactions

Please note: If you have recently started using your new Debit Mastercard®, you will have to re-apply debit card payment control settings previously applied on your old Visa card.

What does the freeze functionality do to my debit card?

If you are a personal and / or business customer with an active debit card, you can freeze and unfreeze your card via the mobile app and through Digital Banking.

This gives you the ability to freeze & unfreeze your debit card in real-time, and can be accessed via 'Manage my card' in the mobile app or under 'Manage your debit card' in Digital Banking.

The freeze prevents use of your debit card and any payments being made on your debit card.

For example, if you have misplaced your debit card you can instantly freeze your card so that it cannot be used until you have found it or until you have ordered a new one.

How do I freeze or unfreeze my debit card?

To freeze your debit card in the mobile app, all you need to do is:

Open up the mobile app
Select the account and card you wish to apply the debit card freeze to
Select Manage My Card
Click Freeze Card

To freeze / unfreeze your debit card through the mobile app you need to:

Have already registered with our mobile banking app
Have updated the mobile app to the latest version

To freeze your debit card using Digital Banking:

Log in to Royal Bank of Scotland Digital Banking
Choose 'Cards' in the main menu
Under 'Manage your debit card', select 'Freeze/unfreeze your card if you think you've misplaced it'
Find the debit card you would like to freeze from the cards shown
Click the 'Freeze card' button to the right handside of the card you would like to freeze

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Card payment controls on my debit card

Please note: If you have recently started using your new Debit Mastercard®, you will have to re-apply card payment controls via the mobile 'Manage My Card' section if you have previously applied them on your old Visa card.

What are card payment controls on my debit card?

You can choose to freeze and unfreeze different payment types on your debit card in real-time using the mobile app.

You can freeze any combination of these card payment types:

Chip & PIN
Contactless, including setting your own contactless limit
Online and Telephone
International In-person
Gambling payments

If you have Notifications set 'On', you will receive a notification for a payment that is blocked by a control.

The notification will be presented to you on your phone, and also in your app, in the notification centre.

When and how will I receive notifications relating to card payment controls?

To receive notifications, you will need to have set them On in the mobile app. You will then receive notifications of declined transactions for debit card payments prevented as a result of a debit card freeze, or individual payment types being frozen.

The decline notification should be received straight after a payment has been attempted. Only one type of freeze will be referenced in any decline notification, even if multiple payment types are frozen.

What will happen if I turn on the Chip & PIN card payment control on my debit Mastercard®?

The Chip & PIN card payment control prevents all debit card payments attempted in-person (e.g. in a physical shop) via Chip & PIN, Chip & signature, or magstripe / swipe.

Please note, this control will not prevent the below:

Making in-person payments using contactless payment
Taking cash out at cash machines
Payments authorised before you switched on this control
Payments processed by a retailer before the retailer checks with us, for example, if you buy something on a plane

What will happen if I turn on the Chip & PIN card payment control on my Visa debit card?

The In-Person card payment control prevents all debit card payments attempted in-person (e.g. in a physical shop) via Chip & PIN, Chip & signature, magstripe / swipe and contactless (card and devices – through Apple Pay and Google Pay™).

Please note, this control will not prevent the below:

Taking cash out at cash machines
Payments authorised before you switched on this control
Payments processed by a retailer before the retailer checks with us, for example, if you buy something on a plane

What will happen if I turn on the Contactless payment control on my debit Mastercard?

The Contactless card payment control prevents all your debit card contactless payments, both card and device based (I.e. Apple Pay and Google Pay™).

This includes:

Contactless Purchases
Apple Pay and Google Pay™ when tapping your device
Contactless cashback (with or without a purchase)
Use on Public Transport (please see below for more detail)

What will happen if I turn on the Contactless payment control on my Visa debit card?

The Contactless card payment control prevents all your debit card contactless payments, both Card and device based (I.e. Apple Pay and Google Pay™).

This includes:

Contactless Purchases
Apple Pay and Google Pay™ when tapping your device
Use on Public Transport (please see below for more detail)

How does the Contactless card payment control affect using my debit Mastercard on Public Transport?

For your debit card with the Contactless control set to on, when you first tap your debit card accessing a transport system the payment will not be declined because the transport merchant does not take payment instantly.

At the end of the day, which may be after you have completed your journey, the transport merchant will attempt to take the payment from your debit card and at which point will be prevented because you've got the Contactless control on.

Subsequently the next time you attempt to gain access to that same transport system by tapping your card, you will be denied access at that point because that specific transport merchant has recognised your card from before. You should contact you relevant Transport Authority, usually via their app or on-line, to allow your card to be accepted again.

If you want to use that particular transport system, you can toggle off the control in the mobile app in real-time providing you have internet access.

How does the Contactless card payment control affect using my Visa debit card on Public Transport?

For your debit card with the In-Person or Contactless control set to on, when you first tap your debit card accessing a transport system the payment will not be declined because the transport merchant does not take payment instantly.

If you want to use that particular transport system, you can toggle off the control in the mobile app in real-time providing you have internet access.

What will happen if I turn on the Online and Telephone card payment control on my debit card?

Turning on the Online and Telephone card payment control prevents the following payments on your debit card:

e-commerce payments
mail order payments
telephone order payments

These may also include the likes of: (please see our Glossary of terms below for more details about these debit card transaction types)

Paypal
In app purchases
Subscription payment set up
Amazon payments (to note: an Amazon purchase will be approved by Amazon at the time of purchase, but at a later time when they make the payment it will be declined. A customer will receive emails from Amazon for both elements of this process)
Customer Tokens
Online purchases and shopping with manually entered card details
Online purchases with saved card details
Ride-sharing services
Individual food orders (e.g. pizza delivery) that are purchased online. However, if you already subscribe to a meal delivery service that bills you weekly or monthly for the food it provides, then those recurring transactions will not be prevented.
Online Registration Fees - e.g. Vehicle Registration, conferences

What will happen if I turn on the Subscriptions payment control on my Visa debit card?

The Subscriptions card payment control prevents Recurring / Instalment / Subscription payments linked to your debit card.

There may be instances where Retailers have described the payment as Subscription but have not requested the payment as a Recurring / Instalment / Subscription payment so these will not be declined when the Control is set On.

Please note, this control will not prevent the below:

Direct Debits and Standing Orders from leaving your account – e.g. Utility Bill
Payments authorised before you switched on this control
Payments processed by a retailer before checking with us

There may be occasions when the Merchant is not presenting a payment as a Recurring / Instalment / Subscription payment which is necessary for the decline to take place as a result of the control being set On, so these payments will be authorised.

What will the happen if I turn on the International In-person payment control on my debit card?

The International In-person card payment control prevents all your International / non-domestic Point of Sale transactions initiated via chip & PIN, chip & signature, magstripe / swipe and contactless.

All contactless transactions would be blocked, both card and device based (I.e. Apple Pay and Google Pay).

The control also blocks all International ATM transactions (i.e. international cash withdrawals via an ATM).

Please note, this control will not prevent the below:

All domestic transactions including domestic ATM
All online transactions, e.g. e-commerce
All recurring transactions

What will happen if I turn on the Gambling Merchant payment control on my debit Mastercard?

The Gambling Merchant card payment control prevents all your debit card transactions with Gambling Merchants.

This includes:

Chip & PIN
Contactless (both card and device based, i.e. Apple Pay and Google Pay)
Online & telephone
International

Please note, this control will not prevent the below:

Purchasing lottery tickets or scratch cards in person from Supermarkets or other non-Gambling Merchants.
Payments authorised before you switched on this control
Receiving gambling winnings

What will happen if I turn on the Gambling Merchant payment control on my Visa debit card?

The Gambling Merchant card payment control prevents all your debit card transactions with Gambling Merchants.

This includes:

In-person
Contactless (both card and device based, i.e. Apple Pay and Google Pay
Online & telephone
Subscriptions
International

Please note, this control will not prevent the below:

Purchasing lottery tickets or scratch cards in person from Supermarkets or other non-Gambling Merchants.
Payments authorised before you switched on this control

What happens when I turn Off the Gambling Merchant control?

Once you turn off the Gambling Merchant Control, you will need to wait for 48 hours before you can make gambling payments.

This 'cooling off' period is in place to help you gamble responsibly, and to support financial wellbeing. The date and time the 'cooling off' period will end will be shown under the Gambling Merchant control in your mobile app.

What happens if I can’t see the card payment controls option?

Card payment controls will not be visible on the app once a full debit card freeze is toggled on. They become visible again when the debit card is unfrozen.

In the unlikely event that you lose connection to the internet when toggling a freeze on, you have a number of options to make card payment controls re-appear again.

You can do either of the following:

Press the back button, and select 'Manage my card & Apple Pay / Google Pay' again and it will appear
Log out, and log back in
Toggle the freeze on, and then toggle off to unfreeze it again

What happens to my card payment controls when I order a new debit card or have a replacement debit card arrive in the post?

If your card is renewed or replaced from Visa to Visa or from Visa to Mastercard, you will need to reset your controls on your new card. If your card is renewed/replaced from Mastercard to Mastercard, your controls will be carried over from the old card to your new one.

Glossary of terms relating to debit card transactions and card payment controls

Glossary of terms

Mail Order Purchases

When you complete a form for example in a catalogue and you mail the form in the post with your details on it.

Telephone Purchases

When you are purchasing goods or services over the phone and providing your debit card details to make your payment.

Paypal

Is a type of e-commerce payment whereby your debit card is linked to your Paypal account.

In app purchases

When you have set up your debit card details in an app and they are then used by the app on your device to make a payment.

Subscription Payments

Is when you use your debit card to set up any regular subscription payment. The merchant may do a one-off check on the debit card there and then, and then the regular payments will occur.

Customer Tokens

Some online merchants, for security reasons, create tokens from your debit card details instead of retaining your full debit card details. The merchant validates the customer's card details when generating a token and initiates a £0.00 transaction. These transactions will be blocked by an e-commerce control set On and the customer will receive a notification on this decline.

One Time Passwords

For on-line payments One Time Passwords will continue to be requested to be actioned by the customer, it is only after this point that the control will step in and make the decline.

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What are the different types of debit card transactions I can control/freeze using my app?

What are the different types of debit card transactions I can control/freeze using my app?

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Card payment controls on my debit card

Glossary of terms relating to debit card transactions and card payment controls

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