CreditCards Blog

This is a rather strange one, but I thought I'd post it as it may be of help to someone.....

When I received a new Barclaycard a while ago I went to a Barclays cash machine to change my PIN. It wouldn't let me have the combination of digits in the PIN that I wanted, although it was hard to see why - it wasn't a stupidly obvious one like 1234 or similar. I assumed this must be a policy of Barclaycard, so chose another PIN.
Sometime later I tried another bank's ATM though, and it let me change the PIN on my Barclaycard to the one I'd wanted in the first place.

Today I tried to change the PIN on a new Abbey credit card in a Barclays ATM, again it wouldn't let me have the PIN I wanted (same number as the Barclaycard) but it would let me change it to something else.
However I then tried a Natwest ATM and it would happily let me have the PIN that Barclays rejected!

I find it quite odd why Barclays would dictate what PIN I am or am not allowed to have on an Abbey card, and yet I can quite easily change it to this PIN in a Natwest machine.
Conversely, I can understand why Barclays would want to control what PIN they allow on their own cards, but yet they appear to have no control over it at all if you change it in another bank's machine!

So it seems your choice of PIN is controlled not by your own bank or card issuer, but by whatever bank's ATM the card happens to be in at the time. Very odd. :confused:

To me the most stupid numbers are not the 'obvious ones', such as 1234 2222 3333 etc but the stupid numbers that relate to the card holder themselves.
I would bet with anyone here that almost 10% of people in this country use in some way or another their DOB or YOB as a 4 number password.
If I was a criminal and obtained by any means someone's wallet with birthdate (eg Driving Licence) the numbers I would try would revolve around those.
I reckon that 5% or more of Pin Numbers begin 19**.

Yes I did used to use my date of birth, until following a relationship breakup a few years ago, my ex got hold of my card, guessed the PIN, and drew 500 out of my account before I had a chance to stop the card :(
I learned my lesson after that!

question?? are you trying to change your pin to an existing barclays bank pin (to keep things simple) i have a barclays bank account and use the same pin for my buiding society cash account - but my barclaycard wont let me change the pin to my bank pin number as it is a default!! tried several times and just memorised the pin they gave me!

question?? are you trying to change your pin to an existing barclays bank pin

No, other than a Barclaycard I haven't had any other Barclays accounts for years, and didn't use this PIN before.

If you try using a cash machine other than Barclays I think you may find, like me, that it'll let you change your Barclaycard to anything you like.

All I can think is this must be a throwback to when it only used to be possible to change PINs at your own bank's machines. In this way they could control which PINs were used on their own cards.
Now its possible to change the PIN on virtually any card in any bank's ATM, this has become slightly pointless.