When I use my debit card with most ATMs, the machine greets me by name even before I confirm my PIN. Obviously, that information is either encoded on my card or called up from a centralized database when my card is read.
Every single time I use my debit card, I’m asked whether I want to perform that transaction in English or Spanish. As I don’t speak Spanish, I choose English every time.
Why isn’t my language preference encoded on my debit card or otherwise automatically activated like my name is? I assume they could automate the language selection; why don’t they? (They could even have a bilingual option for people who like to switch every now and again.)
Note: this is not a complaint, really; I’m just curious. It seems odd. Lots of wasted keystrokes when you factor in all the users on all the ATMs out there.
(If it matters, my debit card was issued by Washington Mutual Bank.)
Your name, the card number and the expiration date are encoded on the card in a standardized format that was developed before ATM machines were invented, so there’s really no room to code in language preference. And until you enter your PIN, the atm you are using does not dial into your bank’s central computer to retreive account information. I’ve seen some ATM’s handle this in a way that eliminates extra keystrokes, though: when you enter your pin, you hit the ENTER button that is labelled onscreen in the language you want to use, and the prompte to enter the PIN is displayed in all the languages the machine offers.
Well, first (and I think that you understand this) the credit card stripe is a read only proposition and the bank can only encode information that is already stored about you.
The problem (IMHO and from working in three different credit card banks’ IT department) is that the database systems that maintiain your information are VERY large and typically VERY old mainframe based systems. Also, they tend to many, many other systems that they talk to and applications that use the mainframe data. When they were originally built the notion the their customers would speak something other than English just wasn’t considation.
As a result any kind of change to the mainframe data structure, even something as simple as adding a ‘PrefLang’ could cost thousands if not milions of dollars. And its not even the change itself but the regression testing (making sure that every single thing still works exactly as it did before the change) that drives the cost. The first place I worked at said that unless a proposed change would save about a million dollars to not even bring it up.
Your name is easy since its already in the system, but a million bucks to save you from hit the ‘English’ button just isn’t blowin up the CTO’s skirt.
When I use my bank card in one of my own bank’s ATMs, it always uses English, even before I enter my PIN, since that’s the language I use in dealing with my bank. But when I use it in any other machines, they always ask if I want English or French. So there must be some data encoded on the card somewhere that lets my bank’s machines know that I use English.
JamesCarrol is right that the language is a feature of the ATM itself, and not the card. Here in Queens, the ATMs speak about a dozen different languages :eek:
I know that Bank of America offers “customized” ATM cards that not only includes language preference but also “fast cash” options. Don’t like the standard $20, $40, $100? Set yours up to display $80, $160, $200. This custom data is encoded on the mag stripe but will probably only work on BofA ATM’s. I’ve been too lazy too actually go into a branch to get a new card.
Piper, does your bank have ATMs located in other provinces, and have you had the chance to try it there? A simpler test would be to have several people with cards from different banks (preferably out-of-town) attempt to use your bank’s ATM, and see what happens – if it gives THEM a choice, then it means it recognizes its own cards right off the bat, but that may only mean that your bank’s using codes on a nonstandard data field that is accesible to the issuing-institution system only.
It might also be the case that Piper’s bank’s ATMs only speak English, period. I know that my accustomed ATM never speaks anything but English to anybody.
No kidding! I’d like to see that. Here in California, ATM’s speak only two languages…English, and the foreign language…Spanish. Which is too bad, because you’ll certainly hear more than two languages being spoken in the streets of L.A. , these days.
As for encoding that sort of language preference data, I think it’ll take a switch from the magnetic strip technology to the smart chip. I have no idea how long that switch will take, but I don’t think you’ll see anyone seriously think about adding extra personalization until everything–or almost everything–is smart-chip compatible.
