I can’t concieve of remembering anything by a pattern.
Mine is a word - not the name of any pets or family members, but a word that means something important to both my husband and me.
Most of our Canadian credit cards have PINs now. They go with the chip they recently added to the credit cards. We’re used to PINs, because we’ve been using PINs with our debit cards since the Interac system of debit cards started in the early nineties.
Canada did not have MC or Visa branded debit cards until very recently, so those probably have PINs as well. But theoretically they could be used without a PIN, with a magstripe instead of a chip, in the US fashion.
:dubious: yourself. Why would someone “never want to” use an ATM? Too convenient?
I’ve done it in different ways over the years.
At one time I had PI memorized to 14 digits and my pin was the last 4 digits of that number.
At one time I used the letter representation of my pin to form a word and memorized it.
I won’t tell you how I do it now, because that would give away what my pin is.
No, just a fun historical one. 
NFL jerseys. I’ll break it down into two jersey numbers then come up with two prominent players who wear those numbers. This won’t always work–if I had something that started with a 6 or 7 I’d be screwed because I can never remember the numbers of individual linemen–if they’re any good, that number never gets called.
It’s an assigned #, i keep a picture of it in my mind. Sometime the file where it’s stored escapes my memory until I am in front of the atm.
I always have both. I come up with it in number form, and then later wind up memorizing it in finger form. Just like my passwords on my computer.
I originally picked a PIN by choosing a four letter word and then converting it to numbers since the number pad had letters on it the same way touchtone phones do. I later changed it to a different pattern because sometimes I need a 4-digit pin, and sometimes I need 6 or 8 digits, so I wanted something that I could easily remember and extend if needed.
In general, though, I don’t have problems remembering numbers. I still remember several people’s phone numbers, my SSN, my EID, my 10-digit bank acount number, all of my 16-digit credit card numbers, etc. For me, as long as I can uncover some kind of a pattern, no matter how obscure, I can remember it.
I made up a little rhyme, in my head, to represent the account, such as, for a joint account; ‘for you, for me!’ Then subbed in numbers, for you = 42, for me = 43. Something along this line. You just have to make up a little rhyme with words that rhyme with numbers. Not that hard if you apply a little thought. Of course, I don’t have a zillion numbers to remember, so that helps.
It’s my favorite number. Then the square of my favorite number. Then the cube of my favorite number. As long as my favorite number never changes, I’m good to go.
Although I don’t worry about PINs in particular, I know the problen you’re talking about in mixing up cards. My wife and I each have our own credit card accounts in our own names, but have additional cards for the other. So I can have two identical cards in my wallet with nothing to differentiate them except for the account number, which holds no meaning to us. I had to buy a set of small stickers, such as little gold and silver stars. A gold star on my own card, and a silver star on hers. No commentary on our relative status, just that when I use a card, mine should be first and hers second when there’s no choice.
1101? 2408? 3927? There’s not a lot of choices if you want to squeeze it into four digits. (If you are using a PIN longer than four digits, all bets are off.)
I’d change it now.
Magical third option. However, I can’t say what it is, otherwise I’d have to tell you my PIN.
Heh. a friend of ours had a daughter who chose the numbers based on the telephone keypad spelling of her nickname.
Her nickname was “Moon.”
Why yes, she DID lose all the money in her checking account once…
All of my credit cards have an option on them to pull cash from ATMs like a debit card, so I use the PINs when I’m in another city or area where the ATMs might be cracked - more protection on a credit card account than on my personal accounts if that number gets swiped.
Also, if you have a PIN for it, you can run a credit card as a debit card at the gas station, and for some gas stations around here, it’s up to 10 cents cheaper per gallon to do so.
An ATM is hardly the only place you’d use a PIN.
I refuse to pay a fee to get my own money.
My PIN is a word that was given to me by the bank. I’ve never opted to change it, because it’s a word that actually makes sense for an ATM.