How to Lock and Unlock Your RBC Credit Card Online and Using the App

We have a RBC credit card because we buy gas at Petro-Canada and earn Petro-Points. Well, to be technically correct my husband has the card and I have an “authorized user” card: It has my name on it but the bill gets added to his account. After seeing an ad on TV for locking the card using the RBC mobile app, I decided I should check into how to do that in case I ever misplaced my card or knew it was stolen.

What Does “Locking” a RBC Credit Card Mean?

First, I checked into what RBC means when it says we can Lock a credit card.

You can read the details yourself at
Rbc.com/creditcardlock

At the time of writing this (January 2019) basically when the card is locked

• no one can charge a new purchase to the card
• no one can get a cash advance using the card

BUT

• preauthorized payments and Recurring bill payments set up to charge to the card
• refunds to the card
• and payments to the card balance

will go through

You can also use your RBC Rewards points while it’s locked.

The idea is that if you think you have just misplaced your card, you can lock it until you check. Then, if the card is really lost, or has been stolen, you can report it and get a new card. In the meantime, no one is using your card to Tap up hundreds of dollars in purchases.

It seemed like a good idea to learn how to do this for my card.

The Trick about How to Lock and Unlock Your RBC Credit Card

First you need to be able to view your card transactions and so on from the RBC website. You need to register your card and set up a password.
So I went online to do that.

Setting Up Online Banking for a RBC Credit Card

To set up “online banking” for the RBC credit card,

Got to rbc.com

Look for the phrase: New to Online Banking? and click the button: Enrol now

A new window opens. Under the question “Who do you want to enroll today?” click to select Myself.

Click on the Enrol Now button.

Under the question “Do you have an RBC Royal Bank Client card or credit card?” click to select Yes. (Note they said “an” RBC not me!)

In the appropriate fields type in your

• credit card number
• postal code

Make sure you put the space in your postal code.

I didn’t and it said “That’s not the answer we were expecting” and made me start typing again.

Click on the Continue button

It won’t work!

I tried a few things then phoned customer support at RBC.

Gosh darn you can’t do it!
You can only get online access if you are the primary account holder!

Can an Authorized User of a RBC Credit Card Lock Their Card Using the Website or App?

No! Unfortunately, an authorized user of a RBC credit card cannot directly lock their card!

Authorized users can only lock the card by

• asking the primary cardholder to sign in and lock their card. (I’m not actually sure if this locks the authorized user cards also or not!)
• phoning RBC and asking them to lock it.

Sheesh!

I of course asked the call centre to add my name to the list of people who want the authorized to be able to lock their cards directly using the app!

How Can the Primary Account Holder Lock a RBC Credit Card Online or Using the App?

The primary account holder, only, can lock a RBC credit card online or using the app.
To do so, the account holder will

Sign in to the RBC website from a computer or using the App.

On a computer

Under the heading Credit Cards, click on the card.

There are two horizontal lists of links near the top of the page. In the second bar, which is grey in 2019, click on Profile & Account Settings.

In the box Your debit and credit cards should be listed your credit card with a Unlocked ios type button beside it.

Click on the button to shift it to say Locked.

To unlock it again, if desired, click on the button to shift it to say Unlocked.

On a Phone

Sign in to the RBC app.

Click on the credit card.

Click on the switch button to Lock the card.

Click Yes to confirm you want to lock it.

To unlock it again, if desired, click on the button to shift it to say Unlocked.

Now if they would just make it this easy for our teen to lock their Authorized User card. They are the ones who most need to be able to lock their cards from their phones!

Related Reading

• [How to Set Up a RBC Credit Card for Online Banking]
• [How to Set Up Alerts for a RBC Credit Card]
• How Petro-Canada Customers Can Check Their Credit Rating for Free Using Their RBC Credit Card

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Do you know how to lock your credit card? Has locking it saved you from any fraudulent charges? Please share your experiences with a comment.