Cards and PINs, oh my...

[urocyon]

It's a good thing I did remember to take cash with me, and try to get money out of an ATM with the new debit card before using it at the checkout. Surprise, surprise: I couldn't remember the PIN!

You remember that kid who never seemed to be able to get into her locker in school? That was me. At least nobody's making fun of me to my face when I have this kind of lapse now. ;)

I blame the dyscalculia.

I tried entering every PIN I could remember, and didn't hit the right one. Not so usefully, I did recall the one for the other debit card I did not have along. So I just requested that HSBC send me a new one, while I was thinking about it.

Even more frustrating, and darkly funny? When I picked up the phone to call Ingvar after I got home, I started off by punching in what I'm pretty sure was the right PIN instead of his mobile number! *facepalm*

But, I had £40 cash, so we do have some groceries. With some leftover spaghetti sauce in the fridge, tonight we're getting (corn noodle) lasagne with lots of spinach and ricotta, and some salad on the side.

Comments

[green_knight]

I cannot remember numbers. At all. Which, given that I have a Master's Degree in history, has been somewhat inconvenient at times.

What I can remember, however, is the sequence of key presses that stands for any particular number, and if I have to learn a new pin or telephone number, I will not only write it down, I will type it on a key pad until I've internalised it (I'm a kinesthetic learner).

Your bank will give you money if you walk into a branch, so that's always an option.

(If the pin thing gets really really bad, you might try getting a card that's working with chip-and-signature. Banks can be really horrible about this, but it's a disability/access stipulation that they ought to give you one. However, what I've heard from other people, it can be really difficult convincing your bank of it.)

[urocyon]

Ha, I can well imagine that could be difficult. :) The best hope I've found of remembering dates is to work them into some kind of jingle or memorably terrible filk. I had to get a giggle at Flogging Molly's "Tobacco Island": "'Twas 1659, forgotten now for sure"--not from now on, more effectively than intended. :) I guess I should think of something similar to do with that PIN, even after I change it to something more memorable (as mentioned below in comments). Taking advantage of the way the brain works: good.

I'm not much of a kinesthetic learner, but will eventually build muscle memory for key presses. Thank goodness, or I wouldn't keep track of my online banking ID! Probably because I use a QWERTY keyboard more often, that works better for me than a numeric keypad, though.

Ah, thanks. I hadn't thought of going to a branch. Thanks for reminding me that will work. :) When I was regularly using a checkbook, I wrote checks to cash fairly often; it didn't occur to me that they'd give me money without the physical check to process.

Thanks for the chip-and-signature suggestion. It's usually not a big problem, but I hadn't been using the card for months. If all else fails, I'll carry around the PIN for a while, separate from the card. Applying mnemonic tricks to a more memorable number ought to do the trick. *crosses fingers*

[freyakitten]

My PINs are mostly based on numbers I memorised as a child - things like variants on old phone numbers or car number plates, things that are no longer valid (like Mum's work number three jobs before retirement) and will not turn up on a cursory search (and anyone who will do more than a cursory search doesn't need my PIN anyway) but which I cannot forget because I shoved them that deep into long-term memory (so deep that I will find myself automatically dialling parental work numbers instead of my house, even though my parents have both been retired for years).

And like the commenter above, it's mostly just easier to remember sequences of movement; I will always enter the wrong number if the keypad is arranged differently.

[urocyon]

One of the problems with this one is that I didn't reset it to something memorable. Once I get the new one from the bank, I'm planning to. :) Old phone numbers are a good choice for me, too--once they're lodged in memory, they stay around forever, like you say.

Thanks for reminding me to do that!