What's a pin?

[AnubisOne]

Just a short one...

A customer I was serving yesterday went to pay with her debit card. She puts her pin in, only for the till to ask for her to re-try entering it. I ask her politely to re-enter her pin. She does so, only for the number to be rejected again.

I wasn't quite expecting the following:

Me: Sorry, madam. Would you mind re-entering your pin again? It's been rejected again...
Customer: What's a pin?
Me: The personal identification number for your card.
Customer: Huh? My wha.....*brain starts working* oh.

[OfficeSlug]

I love when they ask ME what their PIN is....

"The last four numbers on the card?"
or
They turn the card over and over looking for the magic numbers.


Idiots.

[crazylegs]

They turn the card over and over looking for the magic numbers.

You would be horrified at the number of people who write their PINs on the back of cards... It's scary!

[Bright_Star]

You would be horrified at the number of people who write their PINs on the back of cards... It's scary!

What's so hard about memorizing 4 numbers? Writing it down on the back of their cards is just ASKING for trouble.

[Sparky]

What's so hard about memorizing 4 numbers? Writing it down on the back of their cards is just ASKING for trouble.

Sooner or later your brain will get so full of numbers that memorizing even 4 more is too hard. But the handiest thing to know is how easy it is to change your PIN to one you can remember.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

You would be horrified at the number of people who write their PINs on the back of cards... It's scary!

My mom learned a hard lesson on that many years ago when her card disappeared from the desk drawer while she was gone for a few weeks, thanks to a family "friend."

Next thing I knew, I was overdrawn on the account (Mom and I had opened up a joint account not long after her ex walked out) over $6000.00 I had companies calling me about bounced checks on top of that.

Finally got it straightened out, although it took 3 years and 2 attorneys. Unfortunately the PI Mom hired couldn't find the "friend" as he conveniently disappeared around the time Mom came back home.

So, no it's not a good idea at all to write your PIN on the back of the card. It can be a very costly mistake and can follow you for a long time.

[wolfie]

Finally got it straightened out, although it took 3 years and 2 attorneys. Unfortunately the PI Mom hired couldn't find the "friend" as he conveniently disappeared around the time Mom came back home.

So, no it's not a good idea at all to write your PIN on the back of the card. It can be a very costly mistake and can follow you for a long time.

You're lucky it got straightened out - most banks have in their customer agreement that if you don't take reasonable precautions to keep your PIN private (and writing it on the card is definitely NOT taking reasonable precautions), you are responsible for any money withdrawn.

If you've got an address book with a bunch of friend's names and phone numbers (especially if they're just listed by first name), why not add an extra friend with a fictitious address, and have your PIN as the phone number? It's there when you need to look it up, but how is anyone with sticky fingers going to know that "Jeff" doesn't really exist?

[Rapscallion]

PIN as part of the phone number - that's what I hypothetically do.

Rapscallion

[Hyena Dandy]

Silly silly people. >_>

Why would you put the pin on the card, though? I have mine memorized.

I also have a number in my phone labeled "PIN" which is four digits, but that number is useless unless someone is going to impersonate me to steal my school lunch.

Those masochistic bastards.

[MadonnaC]

Micheal McIntyre has it right - (from when UK changed to chip and pin) If you can't remember 4 numbers, you don't deserve to eat

One thing I do is to pick a four letter word that's easy to remember - such as WORK - then look at keypad, and use those numbers e.g. 9675