Changing Pin No.'s

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brokeparent

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We've just had a discussion at work on the difficulty of keeping track of all the various pin numbers needed these days. One suggestion put forward to alleviate the difficulties of remembering the various numbers is to change all your cards to having the same number. Some people involved in the discussion are of the opinion that if you do this and anything goes wrong through the fraudulent use of your card that you will not have the same safeguards in place as if you continue to use the number issued by the bank in the first place. Can anyone shed any light on this. As you may gather we are not the most financially savvy whizzkids on the block
 
I would imagine if you had the same PIN for a number of cards, this could be construed as negligence and you would then be liable for any fraud on the accounts. That's only my opinion, not necessarily fact.
 
I have changed all my pin numbers to the exact same number. It makes things a lot easier.

Mimi
 
mimi rogers said:
I have changed all my pin numbers to the exact same number. It makes things a lot easier.
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For you or for anyone who gets their hands on your one PIN and your wallet?
 
I have 1 PIN for all my bank cards and that number is in my head. Much easier to remember one number rather than many and you don't need to write anything down.
 
I agree BillK. I'm sure plenty of others use the one number too. It is easier to have just one number in my opinion. Several numbers would be too difficult to remember.

Mimi
 
i myself use the one pin number for all cards. it keeps things simple especially when we use pin numbers in other ways as well.

Alex.
 
Fair enough-people find using one PIN easier than using many.

But do people actually feel that this is secure, i.e. it protects your cards from unauthorised use, which is the point of a PIN in the first place.

Also, as I have pointed out, use of one PIN for many cards may have a negative impact on your ability to rely on the bank to cover any fraudulent losses incurred on your account. If someone suffered losses as a result of having the same PIN for, say. 3 or 4 cards, I wouldn't have too much sympathy for them, and I don't know if their bank would either.
 
It is a great idea convenience wise but does it make it easier to have your cards used fraudulentlly. Even more importantly do the issuing Banks think fraud is more likely in this scenario and are less likely to cover fraud when pin numbers have been changed to a number not issued by them
 
No disrepect CCOVICH but I find it hard to imagine you'd be liable for fraudulent use just because you have the same pin for a couple of cards. Can anyone shed any light on this? I dont understand why you would not feel sorry for someone who was ripped off (and who had a couple of the same pin nos.) surely you should always feel sorry for someone who has had money stolen??
 
As the banks give you the option to change the pin (via ATM machines) surely they wouldn't be able to offer less protection to someone who changed their pin as opposed to someone who stuck with the computer generated one?

I don't recall ever seeing anything in the terms & conditions of use of ATM/Visa cards stating that they was less protection offered if you change the pin...afaik the only mention in the t&c's is not to disclose your pin to anyone or keep it written down with your card?
 
brokeparent said:
It is a great idea convenience wise but does it make it easier to have your cards used fraudulentlly.
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Agreed, I think this is the key point here.

brokeparent said:
Even more importantly do the issuing Banks think fraud is more likely in this scenario and are less likely to cover fraud when pin numbers have been changed to a number not issued by them
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I don't know the score on this one, I don't think it matters, but any PIN you choose yourself should be difficult for anyone else to guess, i.e. it shouldn't be your birthday etc.
 
colc1 said:
No disrepect CCOVICH but I find it hard to imagine you'd be liable for fraudulent use just because you have the same pin for a couple of cards. Can anyone shed any light on this?
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It's only my opinion, so no offence taken. I do think that if you have the same PIN for multiple cards it does make it easier for thieves as they only have to find out one PIN number as opposed to more than one, and perhaps this could be construed as negligent.

colc1 said:
I dont understand why you would not feel sorry for someone who was ripped off (and who had a couple of the same pin nos.) surely you should always feel sorry for someone who has had money stolen??
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That's my own business, but if the same were true of me, i.e. I had the same PIN for a number of cards and this aided thieves in ripping me off, I wouldn't expect any sympathy, as I consider having different PINs to be more secure than just having one.

Of course any potential thieves still have to get one PIN number, but I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that getting one is easier than getting more than one?

A lot of this could be down to interpretation, so unless we get a post from someone aho has experience in this area we could be going round in circles for a while!
 
One of the people who was advocating this system in the discussion that led to this thread even uses the same pin no. for her burglar alarm. Is she the only person with access to this no? I doubt it. I do think it matters if we leave ourselves open to loss through actions we take - especially if we don't realise that repercussions are possible when we take up offers such as the one the Banks make when offering the change of no. facility
 
Ive the same pin for all my cards (but not for anything else that would require me giving out this pin).

This pin is not in my wallet only in my head, so if my wallet is stolen they would have to use some utility to ascertain my random pin number. I assume they've some utility/tool to do this successfully as it has to be done within 3 attempts before the card is taken back by the machine? If they do have this tool I dont see how having 3 different pins is anymore secure than 1?
 
Casoeipa, what if they don't have a device to find out the pin but rather have some kind of pin reader on an atm machine. They let you put in your pin for one atm card, pick your pocket, and then using the one pin have access to all your credit, debit cards etc.
I have different numbers for my cards but I only have 3 cards with pins so I can mange to remember them all.
 
CCOVICH said:
It's only my opinion, so no offence taken. I do think that if you have the same PIN for multiple cards it does make it easier for thieves as they only have to find out one PIN number as opposed to more than one, and perhaps this could be construed as negligent.

Of course any potential thieves still have to get one PIN number, but I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that getting one is easier than getting more than one?
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Glad no offence was taken for a start :) and you make a reasonable point I understand your argument that one pin is easier to guess than a few so I can see the merits of this argument there are so many pins these days its hard to remember them all :(
 
I use the pin no. the bank sent me - when I first got it, I had it in my address book as part of a phone number for a made-up friend, not recognisable to anyone but me as a pin number. That was years ago and I now just know it off by heart anyway. My visa pin which I got recently is luckily easy to remember for me so have had no problem having it off by heart from the start.

However, don't banks recommend to change your pin on a regular basis? I'm not sure I could cope with that.

For other pin numbers (e.g. alarm codes, voicemail etc) I try to stick to the same three or four sets of numbers I've been using for years. I seem to be able to keep six or seven sets of numbers in my head but some of them have to have relevance for me - I have more difficulty remembering random numbers. Work vmail is a pain as the pin needs to be changed every couple of months but you can't use the same pin as your last five codes.
 
On the advice of a teller in a bank branch, I changed my new Maestro card to that of my Visa card a year ago. I'd never have thought of that myself. Obviously the risk is greater if several cards are stolen and one of them has been scammed.

I shouldn't think banks would provide the facility to change PIN numbers if they thought it risky, would they?
 
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