Barclays Bank reduces Visa limits; $150 per day for standard cards

Barclays Bank has revised its Visa debit card daily limits downwards. The bank’s standard cards have been reduced to a daily limit of $100 on Point of Sale (PoS) and $50 on ATM while the prestige segment of cards have been reduced to $150 on PoS and also $50 on ATM.

The new limits kick in next week on Tuesday 15 August 2017.

The bank sent the following message to its customers:

We advise that daily limits for our Visa debit card on Point of Sale platforms, international online payments and ATM withdrawals will be revised on 15 August 2017 as follows:

Standard segment – $100 (POS) and $50 (ATM)
Prestige segment – $150 (POS) and $50 (ATM)

We wish to remind all our valued customers of our fair usage policy on personal accounts. Please note that when you instruct Barclays to carry out payment orders (such as bill payments, stop orders, scheduled payments and debit card purchases), these are meant for transacting in individual customers’ personal capacity and must not be used for any other purpose. All company and third party payments need to be made through the appropriate channels. Kindly note that your Visa card or account may be disabled if this policy is breached. 

Barclays follows other financial institutions that have been making similar moves over the past weeks as the problem of local banks’ underfunded nostro accounts worsens.

Just last week, EcoCash announced reduced daily limits on its Mastercard debit card to $300 broken down as $200 on PoS, $50 on ATM and US$50 online.

About 2 weeks ago, CBZ, one of the largest banks locally, announced new withdrawal limits for its international Visa card holders – daily limits of $200 on ATMs and $1,000 for international PoS machines and online transactions.

Just to understand the extent these daily limits have reduced, consider that less than a year ago (November 10 2016), Barclays announced:

We advise that daily limits for our International Visa card on Point of Sale platforms outside the country and for international online payments, have been revised as follows: Classic and Electron Card- $1500, Gold and Prestige card- $2000.