Nationwide PIN change

Sounds like they need some IT gurus - where do I send my CV :-)

Snail mail might be a good bet.

I have problems remembering seldom used numbers, ie PINs. Because of this Natiowide have been very kind offering me a FlexAccount Card that can only be used a ATMs yet doubles as a cheque gaurantee card. I can't use this card alone to purchase goods in stores. The credit card Nationwide have issued is the exact opposite. It is a Chip & Signature Card (details on their website under accessibility). This is a VISA card which all shops accept who display the logo accept, Chip & PIN compliant or not. It works in the same manner as a Chi & PIN card. Enter your card into the new type chip reader, OK the amount, and a transaction slip is produced for you to sign.

Other than remembering seldom used numbers other reasons for using a signature vice a PIN in shops are:

Security. Incidences of cash-point fraud have been escalating. Banks insist using cash points is a safe way of getting money and to they are starting to cover ATMs with CCTV cameras to deter fraud and resolve disputed transactions. In addition they are painting privacy zones around cash-points. Will retailers do likewise. Hence my decisions to have a card that can only be used with a PIN at a cash point and not in a shop.

Chipped cards, because they are retaining magstrips can still be cloned. Clone a high value chipped credit card and use it with a PIN at a non-compliant chip and PIN cashpoint and where does that leave the victim? I bet the crooks, are already one step ahead and looking forward to this. This explains my decision to reject a PIN with a credit card. In addition I have no reason to use a credit card at an ATM to withdraw expensive cash.

IMHO its a bit negligent of credit card issuers to send out PINs without even asking their cardholders if they can manage one, have any issues regarding PINs, or failing to tell cardholders there is an option - A Chip & Signature Card.

James

Certainly they have little clue when it comes to providing a decent online banking service, or sensible options.

I tried and failed to get them to readvise me of my PIN via online banking. (There is no specific question to that effect, so the secure message was rejected as "inappropriate", and I was told to phone. These people aren't trained to think.) So I had to phone up, whereupon instead of reminding me of my PIN, they changed it. (I couldn't remember the original one, but it certainly wasn't the one they sent me.)

They I wanted to get my wife's PIN changed to the same as mine. "Sorry, we can't do that - we don't know your PIN." (Hey, the computer knows my PIN, so surely it can be told to set my wife's to the same one as mine. Submit your CV now!) But if she phones up we can readvise her (i.e. change it).

The contrast with the much maligned Egg is stark. I wanted readvising of my Egg card PIN, so I selected the "tell me my PIN" option in online banking, and hey presto, up it came on the screen.

Don't get me into the question of why you can't have an e-savings account without having to set up an unwanted flexaccount as well. You have to transfer money to the flexaccount, wait a few days until it has arrived, then manually transfer it to e-savings.

If it wasn't for the fact that Nationwide have some good deals (like no foreign currency loading on overseas credit card transactions) I would walk away from them very quickly.

Brian

I stand corrected. It turns out that it was the same PIN after all. Clearly the onset of old age...

accounts. Therefore could you not jettison the accounts that do not work for you (keeping the credit card) and move on elswhere? Eric

I disagree. i find the NW online banking works very well and doesn't require special software or any particular browser.

I have requested to be advised of my PIN using the message facility. It arrived by post no problem.

You should not be able to instruct them to change someome else's PIN (you wife's) and nor should she be able to find out your PIN by asking hers to be set to be the same as it. So clearly they could not follow an instruction to set one person's pin to match another's. Also they could not set your pIN to a number you tell them over the phone becuase then someone there would know your PIN.

Surely it arrives in the flexaccount at once, as soon as you press the button. It certainly looks that way on the online statements. You do have to have a flexaccount it's true, so it's for regular members of NWBS but not so convenient for people who are just looking for a easy-access savings account.

Each to his own..

Robert

If their computer was secure, then it shouldn't know what your PIN is.

My computer doesn't know what my password is. It knows what an encrypted version of my password is, and every time I enter it, it encrypts what I enter, and compares the encrypted versions.

But that would mean that they could not remind you of your PIN but could only change it to a new one and inform you what it was. the OP tells us this is not the case. Perhaps it should be.

Robert

Antipodean banks have been using chip and PIN cards for some time using the name EFTPOS. There have been problems with crooks peering over shoulders to get a PIN before stealing the card. The argument goes that a thief doesn't have to peer over any shoulder to see a signature as it is shown on the card, hence chip and PIN is more secure.

I have to say though that most shops using the EFTPOS system have keypads that you can pick up and hold close while you enter the PIN. They also are designed to give better privacy than those I've seen in the shops here. With the higher level of UK crime I'd expect the design of terminals here to change soon.

There was no problem using the EFTPOS system as you have done, with a signature only card. Indeed many retailers expect all foreigners to be using such cards.

In Norway, years ago, it was usual to have to type your PIN at the shop even before chips were used. The PIN keypads normally had a little screen round them to stop people watching what you typed.

Robert