How To Cope And The Way Forward On The Latest CBN Policy That Prohibits The Use Of ATM Cards Abroad

You are all aware of the latest CBN policy that will from next year prohibit the use of ATM cards abroad and online transactions.

And in case you don’t understand the full implications of the policy, we have given a breakdown on the latest CBN policy for easy comprehension and for you to know the types of transactions that will from then be allowed or restricted.

Ever since CBN handed this policy to money deposit banks in the country, it has generated lots of tensions, panics and lamentations especially on the part of those who carry out most of their businesses online.

But today, we are bringing to you message of goodwill and we are going to be showing you the way forward or the alternative routes to go about all your online transactions with less hassle should CBN and money deposit fail to retrieve their policy on the eleventh hour and finally go ahead to implement it come January next year.

The first and foremost step to take in order to ease your online transactions after the CBN policy takes effect is to find a way and open a domiciliary account with one of the banks  if you don’t have any already.

Must Read: How to open a GTBank domiciliary account

With the domiciliary account, you can easily wire foreign currency to your online merchants that accept Wire Transfer as form of payment for goods and services.

Secondly, you can request for dollar dominated ATM card (MasterCard or VISA) from the bank you operate the domiciliary account from, most banks in the country issue these cards.

The dollar ATM card is linked with your domiciliary account in some cases and in other cases it is a separate account but works hand in hand with the dorm account and it cost $20 in most cases plus additional $10 annual maintenance fee to obtain these cards.

For with these dollar ATM cards and with the CBN policy, you will still be able to use the cards abroad and pay for your online goods and services on platforms that accept only foreign currencies.

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Then while transacting on sites that accept local currency only, you will now make use of your Naira ATM card which we presumed you already have.

Now some of you will want to ask how to fund the domiciliary account or the dollar ATM card since deposit of foreign currency to dorm account have also been prohibited.

For those that work and receive their salaries in foreign currency into their dorm account, that is one method of funding and from their dorm account,  they can fund their dollar ATM card easily by issuing a standing order instructions at the counter for transfer from dorm account to dollar ATM card.

Then for those that will just want to fund their dorm account or dollar ATM cards, you can fund them by asking a bureau de change personnel (most cases Abokis) to do a transfer into your dorm or dollar ATM card account.

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Thirdly for those that want sharp sharp transactions and don’t have time of opening of dorm account, you can walk into any bank and request for their Dollar prepaid ATM cards (most banks have these), it also cost about $20 to $30.

Though some banks might still request you to open a Dorm account for their Prepaid card while some will issue it to you almost immediately on request without a dorm account.

You can also fund the dollar ATM card same way you will fund the other dollar ATM card as described above.

Fourthly you can opt to transact online by paying via MoneyGram or Western Union Money Transfer method for the online merchants that also accept this method of payment.

And yes, for MoneyGram, you can do that only through Access Bank and for Western Union; you can do that only through First Bank.

Also Read: MoneyGram partners Access Bank for outbound money transfer services

Finally you can ease your online transactions after the CBN policy takes effect by opening and running a foreign PayPal account; and yes people still open and run foreign PayPal account smoothly in Nigeria despite PayPal stringent polices.

Though they do it through the use of dedicated VPN services and you can fund it by buying PayPal funds from those that are offering to sell.

Lest I forget for Payoneer users, you can also use your Payoneer cards for your online transactions if you have one.

Those are the way forwards and the next alternative routes to take in order to be in business if CBN and the commercial banks finally strike by January.