Westpac Credit Cards: Should I Use A Pen Or Pin?

Using a PIN is not only quicker and more convenient, it is also more secure than a signature.

Should I pay using a signature or via a pin number with my Westpac Card?

Whether to use a pen or PIN will be largely dictated by what you are trying to do with your credit card. Trying to sign for cash from an ATM is going to be difficult. The idea with PINs is that they are safer than using a pen for in-store transactions with your Westpac credit card . However, if you are the genuine cardholder, it is clearly no safer for you to use a PIN over a pen – the transaction will go through either way. In fact, until the option to sign with a pen is done away with completely, the possibility of in-store fraud by an unauthorised person is perfectly real because any idiot can learn to forge a signature.

As a preference, Westpac urges using a PIN in the pen or PIN debate because it is faster and easier for the customer and the merchant.

So, what is a PIN?

PIN stands for Personal Identification Number, so when anyone refers to their PIN number, they are actually calling it a Personal Identification Number number. However, pedantry aside, a PIN is a 4-digit security access code that is linked to a specific card.

Although you can choose to have a PIN greater than 4 digits, many ATMs only accept four-digit PINs so you may be shooting yourself in the foot by having anything more than four numbers. That would be like signing a different name to the one on the card – your transaction will be refused.

Pen or PIN?

Keying in your PIN is more convenient than signing because it’s quicker and easier. How many times have you forgotten to carry a pen, and the merchant’s has all but run out, causing you to make such a mess going over your signature several times that you look like a card thief doing a bad forgery?< The PIN option brings Australia into line with Europe and the United Kingdom, and there are some overseas merchants who will only accept PIN authorisations for credit and debit card transactions.

At the moment, every major Australian bank, financial institution and card scheme is collaborating with retailers, merchants and service providers to ensure blanket implementation of PIN usage.

Of the Westpac cards, the MasterCard Gift cards are unable to use PIN verification, so there is no choice between pen or PIN with this one; you have to sign.

Completing PIN transactions

Making a PIN transaction is a simple process, so there is no reason why even the most technophobic person should balk at the idea:

• Press ‘Credit’ on the payment terminal.
• Enter your PIN when prompted to do so.
• Press OK.
• Take your receipt.

Pretty soon, the question of pen or PIN won’t exist, because the signing option will have disappeared, so you may as well start using your PIN and get used to it.

Image source: westpac.com.au

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