Just to be clear here, your Visa or Master card are credit cards, and your ATM card is the Knet card. So whats the difference when your traveling abroad and using them both, ATM cards in Kuwait are very safe, only is some one else has your pin number ofcourse. But abroad your ATM is really unsecure, why because first of all its not insured by Visa or Master Card, what do i mean by insured is; if some one stole your credit card and used it in some store, when you claim to your bank that it was stolen, Visa & Master Card international would repay you back or when your in Kuwait and get a recipet that you gambled in Malaysia, and ofcourse you did not:P yah sure…you would send a claim to your bank and your bank proves that you are in Kuwait, then you would get reimbursed. But with your ATM its different, if you have lets say 3000kd in your bank account, and your ATM gets stolen in London, and this guy goes to the London theater inviting everybody in the street to watch ” the blue man show” you end up getting nothing. Your ATM is not insured and AND its the one that hold the cash. So my advise here, always use your credit card for purchases and use your ATM for cash withdrawals only!
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April 11th, 2007 at 4:26 am
Funny, i just gave a presentation about this.
also its good to note that credit cards are a lot more secure and extra measures can be taken to prevent credit card fraud.
April 11th, 2007 at 7:36 am
:: As for shopping K-net is the only card that needs pin number (in Kuwait). All POS (point of sale) machines in Kuwait are dealing with K-net (local banks) Visa/Master/Diners works without the pin issue.
once your outside Kuwait lets say Gulf region your ATM will turn into either Visa Electron or GCCNet otherwise any other country either Visa electron from Visa or Meastro from Master
Now with the Credit cards (Visa/Master/Diner) it has the same method but without pin as i said (u need the pin number only for Cash transaction from ATMs) Diners wont be work on any ATM (it has no pin at all)
April 11th, 2007 at 9:01 am
yah just keep in mind that credit cards are secured and insured.
April 11th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
I don’t even use Kuwaiti cards when I travel .. AMEX is your best friend. Even with an insured VISA credit card; local banks will make you jump through hoops to prove it was stolen. With AMEX, I am a phone call away from receiving a new card and reimbursement.
April 11th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Hey in class we were talking about exactly the same thing. My students told me that KFH has an ATM card (can’t remember the name) that is secured because it has a chip. I’m not sure how true this is, though.
April 11th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
KFH has a smart card, its a chip that is hard for thiefs to copy, with normal ATM cards its easy to copy the information on the magnetic card, but with smart chips its nearly impossible. Not really useful in Kuwait.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Any one facing difficulty using Knet payment system at http://www.mtc-vodafone.com or http://www.qualitynet.net ? Their customer care employee ma yadry wain allah ga6a :/
April 11th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Mishref:
yeah i once had a problem with mtc-vodafone. I payed with K-net, the K-net website told me it was declined, yet it was deducted from the bank. i had to call the bank, and let them send a fax to mtc, then i called mtc to follow up for it … it took me around 5 days to pay the bill .. never used online in kuwait again
April 11th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
It just gives me null error. Someone have to point out this thing to the right person. Any one have connections in knet technical department ?
April 12th, 2007 at 1:35 am
china esalfa sarat diwaniyat eshakawi:P