How to check PIN on foreign cash/debit card without a transaction

NFH

I have a Deutsche Bank Maestro debit card which I haven't used for cash withdrawals for years. For purchase transactions in Euroland, I always signed until a chip was recently introduced, and then I found I couldn't use it without the PIN even for purchases, not surprisingly. I've recently found an old PIN notification and I need to make sure it's the right one before I next go to Euroland. I've tried to change the PIN on a Barclays cash machine, where it gives me a choice of using the card as Maestro or Girocard, but whenever I try to change the PIN through either network, it tells me that the operation can't be completed. As a comparison, I tried to change the PIN of a UK-issued card using the same Barclays machine entering the wrong old PIN, and it specifically told me that the old PIN was incorrect. Therefore I'm guessing that the PIN of my Deutsche card can be changed only on Deutsche's own cash machines.

I don't want to incur charges by testing this card with a GBP transaction in the UK, so can anyone think of any other way to verify the PIN on this card?

blueberrypie

Most banks will send you a PIN reminder by post if you ask them. If you have on-line banking, you can also sometimes view your PIN on that.

MrPhoton

You can call the customer service number and choose to have the PIN sent to you by email.

COIAHLGW

Even if it's a foreign card, could a card reader (say for instance from Nationwide, RBS group, Co-Op or Barclays) be used to verify the PIN? May be worth a try if you are able to get hold of one easily.

NFH

blueberrypie wrote: »

Most banks will send you a PIN reminder by post if you ask them. If you have on-line banking, you can also sometimes view your PIN on that.

Unless you have accounts there, you may not know that most banks on the Continent charge for almost everything, including reissuing a PIN. I'm fairly sure that when something similar happened years ago, they had to reissue the card. I just want an easy solution, hence my question. Their online banking doesn't support displaying the PIN.

MrPhoton wrote: »

You can call the customer service number and choose to have the PIN sent to you by email.

Really? How do you know that Deutsche Bank do that? I can't see any mention of that anywhere.

NFH

COIAHLGW wrote: »

Even if it's a foreign card, could a card reader (say for instance from Nationwide, RBS group, Co-Op or Barclays) be used to verify the PIN? May be worth a try if you are able to get hold of one easily.

That's a really good suggestion, but I had already tried that with my Barclays card reader, and it said the card is invalid. Deutsche uses a different form of two-factor authentication for online banking.

ILW

Put the card is a machine and just ask for a balance, if it does that then the PIN is OK.

Hazzanet

Attempt to do a pin change at a cash machine (if it will allow it). If the original PIN is incorrect, the machine will spit the card out.

NFH

ILW wrote: »

Put the card is a machine and just ask for a balance, if it does that then the PIN is OK.

Again, another good suggestion, but I've already tried that, also on the same Barclays machine. It doesn't seem able to communicate with Deutsche at all because it says (in German) that the operation could not be completed.

NFH

Hazzanet wrote: »

Attempt to do a pin change at a cash machine (if it will allow it). If the original PIN is incorrect, the machine will spit the card out.

Did you read my original post? I even explained the difference between what happens when the machine is able to verify the original PIN and when it is not able to do so.

izools

If you go to pay for something in the shops and type in the pin, but pull the card out the second it says the pin is accepted or is incorrect, the transaction will cancel, just apologise to the cashier and say "oh sorry wrong card here's the right one"