go to your branch and if they have a Mag-Tech machine … they can recode your card and you get to pick your own new pin… or
call your bank and ask to speak with the CheckCard Dept and have them send you a replacement PIN
as for Wal-Mart not taking “credit” transactions
Beginning January 1, 2004, merchants are no longer be required to accept all types of Visa/MasterCards Cards. The merchants choose the type of cards that they want to accept.
Their choices are:
all Visa cards, including check cards (debit), credit cards, and business-related cards (both debit and credit), or
only Visa consumer check cards (debit), or
only Visa credit cards and Visa business-related cards (both debit and credit)
If a merchant chooses to accept debit cards the customer will be able to sign for the transaction.
If the merchant does not choose to accept debit cards, the customer should be able to use their check card by keying in their PIN number if the merchant uses a PIN terminal to accept payments, but the customer will not be able to sign for the transaction.
It is important to help customers remember that individual merchants make the decision about which cards to
accept – not Visa your Bank.
How does this work? The PIN is not encoded on the card and therefore no recoding should be required. They need to update their host systems to set the new PIN. I suppose you can have an application that allows a user to enter a new PIN (some ATMs allow this anyway) which is then sent to the host, in which case the MagTek (which is how it is spelled) you refer to needs just be an MSR along the lines of the one in an ATM.
My work is in PC Banking… but when I had to deal with the Customer Service side of the house is what I was remembering…
The PIN is not stored on the card… however there is a offset code on the card which allows the “system” to compute your PIN … that is what the MagTek is changing… that is why you get the Card in the mail (or at least thats how our Bank handles the issue) you get an issued PIN… if you want it changed you have to visit a Branch
As for PINs, the obvious choice seems to call your bank. Any of the “big name” banks ought to have a automated telephone banking system that lets you change your PIN, right?
The incompetence comes in choosing to use client/server rather than in choosing to use a host system (connected either through proprietary communication or through the internet) that does not require thousands of reloaded servers or PCs simply to upgrade some software.
If i understand the article, it will give the appearance of being regional or accidental because it is aimed at only a limited number of credit card providers. Therefore, some of us were permitted to override the PIN request with a “cancel” while others of us were simply not permitted to use our debit cards as credit cards.
