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Posted by Felix Okoli on Tuesday October 7, 2014 at 10:9:59:

At times I normally do online shopping on foreign websites using my Nigerian bank issued cards and I've bought things on sites like Amazon and Aliexpress but one problem I've been having with Aliexpress was that they were not really accepting my Naira cards but only the prepaid dollar card I got from Zenith bank was working.

For those who don't already know, Aliexpress is a baby company of Alibaba, a top Chinese company that is already going into the US market and becoming a major threat to companies like Amazon and eBay. It is reported that Alibaba makes more sales than Amazon and eBay combined and this is probably because the world is now mostly buying things that are made in China.

Well, Aliexpress is basically a retail online shopping website that allows people from teh world over to buy things made in China and have them sent to their countries for practically free. The bottomline is that Aliexpress allows you to buy cool stuff from China at a really low price and they ship this items to almost any country in the world using either postal mail or companies like DHL.

I used to avoid having to use a GTBank Naira Mastercard for online shopping since it was not working then and I used to think that one needs to get a token worth N3k from the bank just to make online transactions but lately it seems that my GTBank Naira Mastercard now works on most shopping webistes like Amazon and Aliexpress. About a week ago, I was able to make payment on AMazon with my Mastercard and now it's also working on Aliexpress.

What does this mean? Well, it means that I no longer need to source for US dollar from the black market just to do international online shopping since I can now pay at those foreign stores with my Naira.

I recently tried to buy a Power bank from Aliexpress rather than buying them in Nigeria since they were offered at a good price. I added the items to my cart and chose to checkout and afterwards entered the card details for processing. The card was accepted and I also got a confirmation email that my transaction was successful. I also got an alert from GTBank saying " The Naira equivalent of USD** has been authorized for the transaction of www.aliexpress.com London GB"

Now, I'm a bit bothered that anyone might be able to use my card to buy things online if they get my card details and know my personal info.

With the way Nigerian debit cards are opening up to foreign websites, it can be scary if our Visa and Mastercard accounts are hacked. What does a person do to protect his bank account from fraudulent foreign online transactions?

I guess one thing someone can do is to call his bank to cancel a transaction when he suspects it is fraudulent and he might also place a daily online transaction limit for that account to which the card is linked. A final option might also be to withdraw all his money if his bank fails to protect him enough.

Well, the god news is that we can now shop on foreign websites with a GTBank Naira Mastercard on websites which are in US dollars.

Shop on Aliexpress

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Comments:
Re: GTBank Naira Mastercard now works on Aliexpress Reply by Andy on Saturday October 18, 2014 at 24:40:8:

Hello, mr felix do u mean u can purchase online with d gtbank naira mastercard without using the token??

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Re: GTBank Naira Mastercard now works on Aliexpress Reply by Felix Okoli on Saturday October 18, 2014 at 24:40:8:

Yes you can. I've tried it on Aliexpress and Amazon. It works.

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Re: GTBank Naira Mastercard now works on Aliexpress Reply by Olushola on Friday November 14, 2014 at 12:1:47:

Sir,

I will be eternally grateful if you can teach me on how you did it. I mean using GTB Naira Denit Mastercard to pay for googds on Aliexpress.

I tried making payment with it today, it did not work.

Thanks.

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Re: GTBank Naira Mastercard now works on Aliexpress Reply by Felix Okoli on Friday November 14, 2014 at 12:1:47:

You can try it first on Amazon.com and buy something small like a $5 gift card by email. If it works, then it can also work on Aliexpress. If not, tell your bank to activate it for Aliexpress. As for me, I just tried mine and it worked without making any request at my bank. I had tried it in the past and it didn't work but later on is started working.

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