Changing PINs of German bank card

[Matthias Mansfeld]

On 11 Jul 2017 at 9:44, Binarus wrote:

> On 10.07.2017 17:42, Guan Xin wrote:
> > This is probably a general question --
> > 
> > I have never seen a German bank that allows changing the PIN of a card.
> 
> I am not sure if this is an intentional limitation of the cards (to
> prevent users from choosing idiotic pins like 1234 or their birthday).

[..]
At least Sparkasse and HypoVereinsbank and IIRC also Postbank allow 
changing at the ATM terminal.

And a birthday isn't as idiotic as 1234 or 1111, as long you assume a 
standard pickpocket doesn't know you personal data (OK, your ID-card 
within the same wallet... maybe no good idea. Then not your own 
birthday but from a person or your cat you can remember, or better 
your wedding day, which normally would be forgotten always ;-) 

> Now, this is a completely different question which does not have to do
> anything with the pin's length. The answer to this question completely
> depends on your environment and your intentions. I will explain this by
> two examples with contrary conclusions:
> 
> Example 1:
> 
[...]
> 
> Example 2:
[..]

Example 3

MY use case would be: I have, let's say two bank accounts at 
Sparkasse, one at Postbank, one at HypoVereinsbank (possible reason: 
two bussines accounts and one private account and one from a 
inherited account) and I can remember ONE good "random-like" 
4-digit-PIN, but would mangle definitely four different PINs (been 
there, done that...). Then I chose one and the same "good" PIN for 
all four cards which I don't need to write down anywhere and 
everything is OK.

Regards
Matthias
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