Pin numbers cut off card swipes on IndiGo

New Delhi: The central bank's recent move to safeguard your debit and credit card usage by making a pin number mandatory for validating a transaction now threatens to leave flyers high and dry in the air. India's largest airline IndiGo has stopped accepting credit cards for onboard payment as there is no technology to validate pin numbers in an offline mode.
The change came after RBI asked banks to issue cards with chips that need a four-digit pin number to be punched in for validating a transaction. This has been done to make card usage safer. Bankers say they are trying to work out a mechanism for re-introducing swipe machines in the air.
"An aircraft in air cannot verify pin numbers and hence cannot be used for transactions. We are seeing how this issue can be worked out," said a bank official. Sources say IndiGo, the only Indian airline to offer card swiping, has even offered to accept the risk of any mistake for in-flight swiping.
Read News in full 02/12/13 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India