Be Protected

Safety of your credit

Financial and lending institutions such as banks, credit and savings unions, credit bureaus or credit agencies have become more accessible for consumers nowadays. Opening a bank account, taking out a loan or getting a credit card is much easier and quicker than before with all the offers being much more appealing to customers. However, before you decide to buy a banking product, you should first learn about how this product works, what costs it entails and how you can monitor using this product.

Once you have decided to apply and sign the agreement with the lending institution, make sure that the personal details, pricing and other terms and conditions that you have earlier agreed on are correctly stated in all the documents. It is also worth learning about how the product can be used safely.

For more information on the existing risks and the ways how you can protect yourself and your assets, please visit the following sites:

Basic security tips
Online payments

Safety of your online payments depends also on you!

Credit and debit card as well as internet fraud is a growing problem nowadays. Additionally to the safety measures provided by the Bank, it is very important that you are aware of and follow a few important security tips whenever you shop online.

Remember about a few simple rules that will help you reduce the risk to the minimum:

Store your cards in a safe place. Check regularly if you have all your cards. When you travel, take only those cards that you will be using and leave the rest in a safe place.

Never let your cards be out of your sight – when you are paying with your card, the payment terminal should be always made available to you. After you have paid, take the card back and put it in a safe place.

In the event when your card is stolen, immediately block it. If you have any doubts about the ATM (e.g. you suspect there might be a skimming device or camera installed), immediately report this fact to the ATM operator (the contact details are listed on the sticker placed on the ATM). If your card is invalid for whatever reason, please destroy all its security features (chip, magnetic stripe, pay pass reader) by cutting it with scissors.

Keep your cards’ details in a safe place but not the same in which you keep your cards. You cards should be always put in a place that will prevent others from reading the information placed on it.

Protect your PIN from unauthorized use as well as your online banking user names and passwords. If you have more than one card, make sure the PINs to each card are different. Your online banking user names and passwords should also be different and changed regularly. Remember that the most secure place to store the sensitive data is your memory!

Do not give your credit card account details over the phone unless the organization is reputable and the call was initiated by you. Remember that banks and merchants will never ask you to provide your personal or card details, user names or passwords via e-mail. In case of any doubts, please contact the operator or merchant to confirm if the e-mail you received was sent by them.

It is important to regularly control your finances. Any irregularity should be immediately reported. Also, you should always control your account balances and transaction history after you have come back from overseas travel.

Sign your card with a pen and set up a PIN as soon as you receive your new card.

If you are asked to confirm the payment with your signature, always read the receipt first. Keep copies of your receipts – they are a record of the transaction.

Contactless payments

Payments up to PLN 50 made with a card featuring the contactless payment function require no PIN to authorise the transaction, but for safety reasons the customer may be asked, on a random basis, to make the transaction in a standard way.

For enhanced security, the transactions exceeding PLN 50:

Require entering PIN when made in a contactless way.

Remember that you can change the limits for your contactless payments.

Online shopping

Online shopping has grown in popularity over recent years mainly because it is a very easy and quick way of shopping that often lets you purchase goods at lower prices. Most Internet sales are safe, but as Internet purchases increase, so do incidents of online credit card fraud

There are, however, several steps you can take to reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim:

Deal only with reputable companies. Make sure the website you access has a physical address and a phone number you can call for additional information. Do not use links attached to other website or e-mail messages (except for registration process where this is necessary for successful registration).

Most major Internet shopping sites take security precautions and offer encrypted sessions - if the URL (web address) starts with "https://" then the site is using a secure server. You should also see a padlock – after clicking on the padlock two times the information on the security certificate date and provider should appear.

Be sure to deal with companies that post their privacy policy on their websites and read the privacy policy. Remember that the only information a merchant needs to process an order is your card number, its expiry date, the three-digit CVC2/CVV2 number and the name on the card.

The most secure way to pay online or remotely is to pay by your credit card.

3d secure

3D Secure is a solution intended to secure online transactions. The process ends with providing a password sent by SMS to the Holder’s mobile phone number.

“I pay with Citi Handlowy” service

With the “I pay with Citi Handlowy” service, you can pay for your purchases via funds transfer from your bank account – directly from the store’s website.