While some people can reliably remember their bank account number along with the sort code and even their National Insurance number, others, just as intelligent in other ways, struggle to recollect their four-digit PIN.
Sometimes this is because memories are fading. Or it may be how it always was. Clearly it can be an issue though and it is something that readers bring up from time to time.
SK of Essex wrote in saying she had telephoned the provider of her savings account that morning and “because I could not remember my security number they could not pay my funds into my bank. I am a pensioner and it is difficult to remember a number I was given two years ago.”
In fact the money was released after some trouble but the issue of security numbers can be a fraught one.
Usually a PIN can be altered to make it more memorable but the numbers chosen shouldn’t be easy for another person to guess. Avoid for example the birthday of a loved one or your own or your wedding anniversary.
Some PINs which seem clever to the compiler can be guessed by someone close who happens not to have the other person’s best interests as heart.
You could use the date of a battle or the beginning or end of a certain war.
The following suggestion is more quirky but once the basics are mastered it can be used to compile a row of unassociated numbers which might, for example, apply across a range of debit and credit cards.
It is based on translating nine numbers into letters so this is for people who have a say over what the number is as with a PIN.
0 will be the letter O
1 would be the letter i
2 would be the letter z
3 will be the letter m ie you have turned 3 round to become the letter m or it can be w
4 slightly out of pattern could be f
5 will be S
6 turned around will be b or p
7 will be with a cross through it becomes t
8 again slightly out of pattern will be a
Now devise some phrases with each word starting with a letter that translates into a number.
Apropos a holiday account for instance it might be
Sailing on the Solent
The PIN for that is 5 0 7 5
For your joint account
Banking together is monotonous/magnificent/middling (depending perhaps on how this arrangement is going)
The PIN here would be 6 7 1 3
For your debit card it could be
Buy and pay soon
The PIN here would be 6 8 6 5
Better for purchaser protection
The PIN here would be 6 4 6 6
Lock combination (for swimming cubicle)
Only swim when well
The combination here would be
0 5 3 3