Frequently asked questions

DinaCard can be used in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, at all ATMs, points-of-sale and counters with the DinaCard label, as well as websites of local merchants displaying the DinaCard label:

In addition to those intended for domestic use, there are also DinaCards that can be used internationally. These cards can be used abroad at ATMs and points-of-sale marked with the labels of acquiring networks Discover, Diners Club International, Pulse (DinaCard-DFS cards) or UnionPay (DinaCard-UPI cards), as well as in the country, at all points-of-sale marked with the DinaCard label.

Debit cards allow the cardholder to pay for goods and services and withdraw cash up amount of funds available in the cardholder’s account, inclusive of the authorized overdraft amount.

Credit cards enable the use of funds whereby the issuer credits the cardholder, subject to signing a contract. More detailed information on different types of payment cards in the DinaCard network is available on our website, page Debit and Credit Cards.

Any natural person above the age of 18 (legal entity, in case of business cards) who has an account opened with one of the DinaCard issuers can be a holder of the DinaCard card.

In certain cases, such as, for instance, prepaid card, minors between 14 and 18 years of age can be cardholders.

In line with their business policy, issuing banks specify the terms and conditions of issuing DinaCard debit and credit cards. It is customary for issuing banks to verify the client’s creditworthiness and credit history (whether clients have previously regularly serviced their obligations) and to set the age limit for credit card issuance. When deciding on the level of credit limit, issuing banks often take into account the monthly income of the potential cardholder, so that the monthly instalment does not exceed a certain percentage of the holder’s monthly income.

If you want to withdraw cash from an ATM, follow the instructions on the display, as they are simple and easy to follow. After inserting the card, first enter your PIN (personal identification number) and then follow the instructions – usually one chooses the account from which to withdraw cash and then selects or types in the amount of withdrawal. When typing in PIN, it is recommendable to cover the ATM keyboard with your hand. After money disbursement, wait for the slip, which in case of ATM withdrawals does not need to be signed. You should keep the slip in order to control the statement from the account to which the card is linked.

If you are in a retail store, making a payment using a magnetic strip card, you need to sign the slip that the merchant hands over to you after the card transaction at the POS terminal. If you are using a chip card, you need to enter your PIN code at the terminal, and therefore you don’t need to sign the slip. This also applies when using a contactless card to pay for amounts below a certain threshold. However, it can be useful to keep this slip for the purpose of keeping track of your account statement.

If you lose your payment card, or if someone steals it, report it immediately to the card issuing bank and follow the instructions of the issuing bank officer. If the loss occurs on a non-business day or by night, you should contact the customer service which all issuing banks are required to have and which must be available to cardholders 24 hours a day. Telephone number of the issuing bank’s customer service is printed on the back of each DinaCard card. You should write this number down or save it in another manner immediately after receiving the card, in order to be able to report the card loss without delay.

A large number of credit cards in our country belong to the category of revolving cards. The name of the card actually describes how the card debt is repaid. The revolving model means that a certain (agreed) percentage of the debt is regularly repaid on a monthly level, while the remaining portion is revolved into the next month. Therefore, unlike consumer loans, debt is not paid in equal monthly instalments, but instalments (a certain percentage of debt) are reduced in line with the total debt decrease. On the other hand, such repayment usually lasts longer than in the case of traditional consumer loan. Percentage that is repaid monthly usually ranges between 5% and 30%.

If you are a regular DinaCard cardholder, the issuing bank will automatically renew your card before it expires. Issuing banks usually inform the customers about the date of expiry in advance, by SMS, thereby giving them the opportunity to cancel the renewal if they no longer wish to use the card. If the card is not cancelled, it is automatically renewed.

If there is no ATM of your card issuing bank nearby, you can withdraw cash at any other issuing bank’s ATM with the DinaCard label. But you must know that most issuing banks charge commission for cash withdrawals on other bank’s ATMs ranging from 1% to 2%, unlike cash withdrawals at card issuing bank’s ATM for which no commission is charged.

Also, for DinaCard users, a cashback service is available with purchases at points-of-sale, where DinaCard users do not pay any fee for cash withdrawal. You can find more about this service on the Benefits page.

There is a special type of cards that can be bought as a gift – these are prepaid gift cards. A prepaid card can be a nice gift for special occasions, such as weddings or birthdays. Prepaid cards entail possession of a certain amount of money on the part of a card holder. They can be bought at a bank or any other payment card issuer. For more details on prepaid cards, see webpage Prepaid cards.

In our market, DinaCard is the only card that can be used for paying taxes directly at the counters of the Treasury Administration branch offices, at no charge. In the same way, at no charge, one can settle other liabilities: annual personal income tax, motor vehicles sales tax, contributions for compulsory social insurance of agricultural workers and tax on personal income made from agriculture and forestry.

Yes, all holders of the national DinaCard can use their card for online payments as well, through webshops of domestic retailers that have the national payment card listed as a payment option, which you will recognise by the DinaCard system logo:

To use your card safely for online payments, make sure you follow a few basic rules that apply to this type of payment:

• always check that the web page with the form for entering card data begins with “http”;
• during the payment procedure, carefully read all notifications and messages that may appear on your screen and never dismiss them or close them without reading;
• you will never be required to enter your PIN number when making online payments; therefore, even if you are asked to enter it, do not do that because this is most likely an attempt of abuse;
• never photocopy your card or make any copies of it and never send data on the card used for online payments to anyone by email (or in another written form), e.g. your name and surname, card number, validity date and the three-digit code on the back of the card.

Some issuers offer their consumers an additional layer of protection for online payments, namely, they perform an additional authentication (verification of identity) of the card holder for each purchase.

Special Co-branded DinaCard programmes are card issuing programmes which provide certain benefits for users when paying in certain retail stores, in the form of rewards, reimbursement of a part of money, more favourable payment conditions and alike. More detailed information on special Co-branded Card programmes can be found at Co-branded Cards.

PostCard of Poštanska štedionica is at the same time DinaCard payment card. It can be used for payments at all points of sale in the country displaying DinaCard sign, and withdraw cash at all ATMs with the DinaCard sign.

In certain, more rare cases, it is possible for an ATM to keep your card when you are withdrawing money. This, for example, may occur if you type in the incorrect PIN three times in a row, because ATM is programmed, for security reasons, in cases of card theft, to prevent unauthorised withdrawals, or if you do not take the card after withdrawal within the set deadline (usually 30 seconds).

If ATM is located in a branch or outlet of a commercial bank, it is best to address bank staff directly with a request to return your card. If that is not possible (e.g. outside working hours), or if ATM is not located within the bank’s premises, it is necessary to contact your card issuing bank and report the case. There is a procedure for returning the cards to owners.

If your account happens to be double charged for one purchase or cash withdrawal, you need to contact your card issuing bank and file a complaint. Upon completion of the complaint procedure, the appropriate amount will be returned to your account.

Card issuers most often define the daily limits or transaction limits for cash withdrawals at ATMs, and in exceptional (rare) cases a limit can also be set for a payment card transaction. It is therefore recommendable to inquire about the above limits when taking the card from your issuer.

Also, some issuers have envisaged in their mobile banking apps an option for card users to set the limits on card payments themselves. 

If you wish to pay in a retail store, before you do, you need to check whether they accept the type of card in your possession. Even though this can be found out only by looking at the card signs in a retail store, it is also advisable to check it with the merchant. Bearing in mind the amount of fee charged for payment card use abroad, it is more favourable to use the card in a store directly than to withdraw money at ATM. Debit card can often be used for payments at no charge, and if there a fee, it is significantly lower than the fee charged for ATM cash withdrawals.

The amount of fee for using ATMs abroad differs depending on the type of card, the withdrawal amount and the issuer. If it is not possible to pay in a retail store directly and you have to withdraw money from an ATM, use the debit card, as the fees charged are usually lower than in the case of credit cards.

Some banks abroad do not charge fees for debit card cash withdrawals if they have such a contract with your parent bank in Serbia. A frequent misconception is that banks abroad will not charge the ATM cash withdrawal fee if they belong to the same banking group as the Serbian card issuing bank. All commercial banks in Serbia are legal entities on their own, so the fee will not be charged only if the two banks regulated the issue in a mutual agreement, which you can check with your bank before you travel abroad.

For further details on using payment cards abroad, see the website Your Money.

If you card charges the dinar account, you must bear in mind the currency conversion costs, the amount of which depends on the type of currency and the issuer. Before the travel you should inquire of your issuer about the exchange rate for conversion to dinars. For further details on currency conversion costs when using payment card abroad, see the website Your Money.

In line with the Law on Payment Services, a merchant as a payment recipient cannot request a special fee for payment card use.

In line with the Law on Payment Services, a merchant is obliged to inform you of the existing discounts for using certain payment cards before you make the payment.

In majority card systems there are four main transaction participants – buyer (card holder), merchant (payment recipient), card issuer (a bank or another payment service provider) and acquirer (also a bank or another payment service provider). Most often, between the issuer and acquirer there is a card payment network, i.e. central point connecting all payment participants.

While the use of a payment card is simple, a series of complex activities are performed in the background to enable payment. When a payment card is used, with the mediation of an issuer, acquiring bank and card payment network, funds are transferred from a card holder to the point of sale. Different operations are carried out on that occasion, from POS connecting to card issuer, through processor, transfer of data about the card and performed transaction, verification of the card validity and availability of funds on the account, approving or declining the card, to communication of acquiring bank and issuing bank aimed at funds collection.

Graphically, this is a typical card transaction flow:

If you wish to be issued a debit or a credit Dina card, you should thoroughly familiarised with the conditions for issuing DinaCard payment cards provided by the issuer.

Debit DinaCard is most often used at no charge (usually as part of a customer service package), or at a small fee (e.g. when issuing an additional card). There is no charge for paying for goods and services with a debit DinaCard. For ATM cash withdrawals, the following practice is customary:

• As a rule, account holders can use their bank’s ATMs at no charge;
• Accessing funds through an ATM of another issuer incurs a fee. The fee is established by the issuing bank in line with its business policy, the amount usually ranging from 1% to 2%.

When taking a credit DinaCard card, it’s important to pay attention to the following:

• Card issuance fee. It’s a one-off fee, paid upon card issuance;
• Annual card holding fee. The fee can be calculated annually or the issuing bank can split it into equal monthly instalments;
• Credit card interest fee, and whether the credit has been approved with a clause (FX clause, retail price increase clause, and the like). It’s important to stress that the credit card interest rate is charged only on your balance, and not on the entire credit limit;
• Cash withdrawal fee. In case of credit cards, unlike debit cards, cash withdrawal fee is usually charged when using the ATMs and window tellers of both your issuing bank and of other issuers;
• Collateral required for the credit card. Bill of exchange signed by the cardholder, or a deposit or wage garnishment are mainly used as collateral.

Since cash withdrawal at ATMs is an additional benefit, and often saves a considerable amount of time to customers, it is useful to become acquainted with the ATM network or locations of individual issuers, as well as on daily cash withdrawal limits per card. For security reasons, issuers usually have a limit on cash withdrawal at their ATMs, as well as for each individual card.

Owing to the success of the national payment card, just like in big European and world economies, there is a higher level of competitiveness in the domestic market and the costs of cashless payments are lower, which makes them more attractive for households and businesses and thus leads to a reduction in cash payments and, consequently, in the grey economy.

DinaCard fees and commissions are the most favourable of all card systems in the domestic market, for all participants. The DinaCard has other advantages too, typical for national card schemes. Since these are domestic systems, rules of operation for national payment cards are efficiently adjusted to the needs of the domestic market, and so the introduction of new products and services for card issuers is considerably more simple, faster and cheaper. In our market only the DinaCard can be used for paying taxes directly at the counter in Treasury Administration branches, at no charge. Other liabilities can also be settled in the same way, at no charge: annual personal income tax, motor vehicles sales tax, contributions for mandatory social insurance for agricultural producers and tax on personal income from agriculture and forestry.

In line with the system’s rules, the basic national payment card is issued at no charge, and is linked to the current account, whereby the DinaCard directly contributes to lower costs of banking services for our citizens.

In addition to being a national card, intended primarily for domestic operations, the DinaCard, depending on the issuer, can also be used abroad at acquiring networks Discover, Diners Club International, Pulse (DinaCard-DFS cards) or UnionPay (DinaCard-UPI cards).