A lot of people have been asking whether they can change their BVN number, and here\’s a guide from my personal experiences. To begin with, I will be running a brief introduction.
What Is A Bank Verification Number?
The BVN in Nigeria simply stands for Bank Verification Number. It is a scheme introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to protect customers\’ transactions and enhance confidence in the Nigerian banking sector.
It involves the identification of customers with the use of physiological or behavioural attributes, such as fingerprints, signatures and others.
The use of BVN was introduced in February 2014 and you can get yours from any bank all over the country.
How To Check Your BVN
Now, the bank verification number is not the same as your ticket ID. The ticket ID is given to you by the bank to help you get the BVN, and you can only have one.
Getting two is almost impossible because it is attached to your fingerprint and any attempts on re-registering would most likely be detected.
To check your Bank Verification Number:
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The Bank
Simply walk into any bank where you have an account, tell them you want to know your BVN and they\’ll help you.
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USSD code
Dial the USSD code *565*0# on your MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9mobile networks and the BVN will come out. Make sure it is the SIM card you used for the registration.
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On the mobile app
You can know your BVN from your mobile banking app.
How To Change Your BVN Number
Before I continue, I will ask two questions.
- Are you trying to change your BVN phone number?
- Are you trying to change your BVN?
Answering the second, why would anyone want to change their BVN? Was it exposed to fraudsters and now you are scared? I don\’t think it is possible to change it at the moment, and you have to protect your number.
While fraudsters use it to obtain information about you, in most cases they cannot directly withdraw your money from your account and will still need to access your credit card and other information.
Can you change your BVN phone number?
The short answer is, YES! However, the bankers might stress you a lot like in my case. They told me at the first branch it wasn\’t possible and attended to a close relative in the second.
I went back to the first, told them their other branch attended to someone I know and the lady began to attend to me. She however said I could only change the number once, and I don\’t know how true this is.
They didn\’t say anything like that in the other branch, so could it be true?
Conclusion
Whichever you are looking for, you can change the phone number linked to your bank verification number, but I don\’t think you can change the BVN at the moment.
You can however get more information from your bank or account manager, and feel free to drop your comments before or email us to make changes to the article.