"PIN Bypass"

clairejanebrennan

Hi there,
Has anyone else encountered a "PIN bypass" system with their bank before? I filled up with petrol on Thursday, and when I went to pay, my Santander bank account card was declined twice before I'd even been able to enter my PIN. I phoned their Customer Services o find out what was going on, to be told that some machines have a "PIN bypass" system in place, and my PIN had been locked. I then had to pay for the fuel on my credit card (not the intention) in order to drive off the forecourt, and Santander customer services also said I would have to go to a Santander ATM in order to unlock my PIN. I spoke to a member of staff at a Santander branch this morning in order to sort it out, and she'd never heard of this. Has anyone else? Seems bizarre... Thank you!

Chino

clairejanebrennan wrote: »

Has anyone else? Seems bizarre... Thank you!

I've never heard of this.
You should raise a complaint with Santander about the inconvenience this has caused you. You might receive some token compensation by way of an apology.
Then switch banks.

TheShape

Chino wrote: »

I've never heard of this.
You should raise a complaint with Santander about the inconvenience this has caused you. You might receive some token compensation by way of an apology.
Then switch banks.

No need to go nuts!

masonic

Sounds fictional. Perhaps the payment device had been tampered with and Santander blocked something fraudulent. In which case, I'd be more concerned about your credit card if you entered your PIN on the same machine.

sheramber

What about other customers? Were they able to pay by entering there PIN? If so, then your card must have been the problem.

"The U.S. is a !!!8220;chip and choice market,!!!8221; with both signature-preferring and PIN-preferring cards and profiles. ... PIN Entry Bypass can be used to allow cardholders to opt out of PIN entry, with a transaction indicator informing the issuer that the PIN was bypassed on a PIN-preferring card."

spenderdave

[QUOTE=sheramber;74677230

"The U.S. is a 'chip and choice market' with both signature-preferring and PIN-preferring cards and profiles. ... PIN Entry Bypass can be used to allow cardholders to opt out of PIN entry, with a transaction indicator informing the issuer that the PIN was bypassed on a PIN-preferring card."[/QUOTE]
When I used the photo booth in my local Tesco the other week the card machine didn't even have a keypad, it took the card and processed the payment without prompting for a PIN (which then correctly appeared on my bank statement). Presumably that is the system you are referring to.

Was this 'pay at the pump' or 'pay at the kiosk'. In either case I would have expected you to have to enter a PIN and would not expected this sort of PIN bypass to apply.

Note that if you (or somebody else?) had used your card earlier elsewhere and failed the 'three times out' PIN entry it would have not worked in that machine or any other until you had reset the PIN. That seems the more likely explanation.

colsten

clairejanebrennan wrote: »

Hi there,
Has anyone else encountered a "PIN bypass" system with their bank before? I filled up with petrol on Thursday, and when I went to pay, my Santander bank account card was declined twice before I'd even been able to enter my PIN. I phoned their Customer Services o find out what was going on, to be told that some machines have a "PIN bypass" system in place, and my PIN had been locked. I then had to pay for the fuel on my credit card (not the intention) in order to drive off the forecourt, and Santander customer services also said I would have to go to a Santander ATM in order to unlock my PIN. I spoke to a member of staff at a Santander branch this morning in order to sort it out, and she'd never heard of this. Has anyone else? Seems bizarre... Thank you!

Which country did this happen in?

pmduk

Have I woken up in a different country or something?

Terry_Towelling

Just wondering whether the PIN Bypass issue is a red herring here. Yes, it is possible that the POS device may have that functionality built in (depending upon who developed it) and it is possible that Santander did see a message come through to them at the time of the transaction asking to bypass the PIN (which they declined) and I am guessing that the POS device was perhaps reacting in a default way to the condition of the card.

What concerns me is that the PIN is locked. Normally a PIN gets locked following 3 failed PIN attempts. OP never got as far as entering the PIN. That suggests it was already locked. This could be a card fault but it could indicate something far more sinister.

What follows is pure speculation and some may consider it a repugnant thought, so I apologise in advance if it upsets anyone (especially OP) but here goes anyway.

Is there any possibility that the PIN was incorrectly entered 3 times prior to visiting the garage? I don't have a Santander account but does the online facility require you to use a card reader and PIN to gain access? Could it have happened then?

What I'm leading up to is could anyone else have got hold of the card and tried to get into online banking with it? Worse still, could anyone else have tried to use the card to withdraw cash from an ATM unbeknown to OP and then replaced the card after failing?

I would be asking Santander to see if they have a record of failed PIN attempts (where and when). If they don't this would suggest the PIN was being used in an offline capacity - such as online banking log-in or most 'PIN at POS' environments. But, if they do, it might indicate an attempt to use it at an ATM.

I know this isn't a nice thing to have to contend with and I am only speculating. If OP is certain that none of this could have happened, then that will be a relief and perhaps suggest that the POS device was having a temporary glitch - but it still doesn't explain why the PIN was locked.

colsten

As spenderdave has already posted, there's a thing called "PIN Bypass" in the US. Thus the question in which country the OP experienced the problem.

Terry_Towelling

colsten wrote: »

As spenderdave has already posted, there's a thing called "PIN Bypass" in the US. Thus the question in which country the OP experienced the problem.

Understood but as OP was buying fuel (presumably for her own car I'm guessing) on Thursday and called Santander at the time and also intimates that she called in at a Santander Branch on Saturday Morning, I suspect she was in the UK at the time.

To my knowledge there is no option to request bypass of the PIN on a PIN card in Europe and OP never did make such a request (she's never heard of PIN bypass) so my guess is that the POS device reacted in some kind of default manner to the condition of the card (locked PIN) and Santander saw a PIN bypass request (which it declined).

The question is, therefore, how come the PIN was locked? - which is why I wrote what I did.