So, I’m off to Spain next week. My wife’s coming along and has been looking up various tips on the 'net, and has run across a claim that European ATMs can’t function on cards with PINs longer than 4 digits (to the point of even eating such cards).
I’m dubious, if only because I’ve certainly been to Italy and successfully gotten money with a longer PIN. But, to be fair, not Spain. And though some amount of research suggests it’s an urban legend, I can’t point to a site that definitively says we’ll be fine.
So, naturally, I turn here. This should be trivial, I reckon: Has anyone been to Spain and used an ATM successfully with a code of 5+ digits? Is there a limit to the number of digits for European ATMs? Or North American ones for that matter?
I have encountered ATMs in both Canada and the US that refused to accept a PIN of more than four digits. I’ve heard the same thing about Europe, so before travelling to Europe I changed my PIN to four digits.
Interesting. Since my US bank only has a 4 digit PIN, I never encountered any problems in the 3.5 years I lived in Europe. What US banks have longer than 4 digit PINs? I’ve never had a bank card with other than 4 digits.
I’ve got 6+ right now. In fact, I’ve had 5+ since the 1980s, and was forced by the bank to go to 6+ at some point in the 1990s. I’ve never had trouble anywhere. So frankly, I’m gobsmacked at both of the answers so far.
I’m not convinced my bank will even allow me to switch to a 4-digit PIN.
I have a five digit pin from a credit union based in California. When I first moved back to Michigan, I was able to use it once at a bank that only took four digits. I think I entered the first four, found that it wouldn’t take anymore, but the transaction went through.
I can’t say for sure how atm’s react to these cards, but here in the netherlands all pin numbers have 4 digits and I’m quite sure you can’t enter more. However, I have found that using my atm in a different country usually triggers some different software (like choosing a language) from domestic users; this might also happen if you need to enter more than 4 digits.
Bank of America has a sort of reciprocal agreement with several international banks. So when I’m in Germany, like now, I used Deutsche Bank and don’t even bother to bring cash or travelers checks to exchange. I don’t get charged a fee at the ATM and the exchange rate is quite good, plus no exchange fees.
You should check if your bank has a similar agreement with banks in Spain or any other countries you might visit.
My Bank of America card only has a four digit pin.
Is is possible for you to change over to a four digit pin before you go?
FWIW, the weather in Madrid was beautiful yesterday.
I think some Americans have alphanumeric PINs with the numbers and letters as displayed on a standard telephone keypad. But I’ve heard that European ATMs don’t have the letters displayed on the keypad, so it’s best to have a purely numeric PIN.
FWIW the user interfaces of the ATMs that I am used to here in Germany usually show how many digits of the PIN that has been input as a graphic like
|----|
|****|
|----|
i.e. the graphical interface seems to be geared to a PIN of exactly 4 digits. Also the PINs for all bank cards that I have ever used have invariably been numeric, 4 digits long, and unchangeable
My ATM card has a 4-digit PIN, so this wasn’t a problem for me.
A related problem, however, is that many places in the Netherlands (and I assume other countries) required a PIN to use a credit card. Both of the credit cards I was using do, in fact, have PINs associated with them, but since I never do cash withdrawals with them, I had no idea what the PINs were. So, if you’re planning on using credit cards, make sure you know the PINs.
You only need the PIN if you’re using a credit card that has a chip in it, like mine. Cards that use magstripes and have no chips, as US ones do, will continue to use signatures.
Yeah, I noticed when I was in Sweden the card readers in stores were designed with the expectation that you would have a PIN. There was a button you could press to indicate that no PIN was available (typical of US based credit cards).
That didn’t seem to be the case in February. None of my credit cards have chips, but they were still refused at a number of locations when I couldn’t supply a PIN.
In the UK it is a maximum of 4 number for a pin on an ATM machine. I know this for a fact as my daughter had this exact problem and could not withdraw money via the ATM while she was in the UK.
With Pin & Chip credit cards I would assume it to be the same, but am not 100% sure.