Use your card safely

Look after your card

• Never lend your card to anyone.
• Keep your card carefully in a safe place.
• After every payment (or cash withdrawal), always check that you get your own card back.
• Check regularly that you still have your card.

Keep your PIN safe

• Cover the keypad with your other hand while entering your PIN.
• Destroy the letter with your PIN as soon as you receive it.
• Never share your PIN with anyone.

How to keep your PIN secret

Handle your PIN with care: it is the personal key to your bank account. The best way to keep your PIN secret is to memorise it. That is not always easy, of course, especially if you rarely use your card. So here is a tip to help you remember your PIN.

A memory trick

Choose a word for each digit of your PIN, with as many letters as the digit. Then make a sentence with the four words. Say your PIN is 9246: you could make the sentence “chocolate (9) is (2) just (4) lovely (6)”. Try it yourself and you will surely come up with a sentence you can easily remember. Working out the digits is then child’s play.

Prevention is better than cure

Handling your card and PIN carefully saves you a lot of trouble. You may not think about it, but you are taking a risk when you:

• tell your PIN to someone else. Bank staff will therefore never ask you for it;
• write your PIN on your card or on a note that you keep with your card, even if you ‘disguise’ it as a phone number;
• use your PIN as the access code for your computer or mobile phone, or as the code for your fuel card;
• use online tools to remember your PIN.