I was in England last week. At Heathrow, I could not use my Bank of America card at the Barclay machine. After a call to the States, I found out that I couldn't use my pin in Europe because it begins with a zero. I had to change my pin number on the spot. Has anyone else ever had this problem? Shouldn't I have been informed of this by the bank when I contacted them to let them know I would be in UK? --Star
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9100 posts
Perhaps they should have told you, but most guidebooks (including Ricks) warn readers that pins with beginning zero can sometimes cause problems.
Posted by
Manchester
495 posts
This is mentioned on travel boards an awful lot - but I have to say this is the first post I've seen where someone has actually had a problem using a PIN starting with zero. Every other time it's been something someone's heard, or read, or a problem that their hairdresser's cousin's actuary had...
For what it's worth I have a number of cards from various bank accounts and credit cards in the UK and we don't have any restrictions on what numbers we can use as a PIN, zeros or otherwise. I wonder if this is an issue from the OP's bank rather than the ATM network?
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9363 posts
My card's PIN starts with a zero, and I have used it successfully at ATMs in Ireland, Spain, the UK, China, and Costa Rica. I've never heard of someone actually having a problem, as the previous poster said. I suspect it IS the bank's issue, not the network. Most ATMs are connected with several networks, and if it was a network issue we would have heard more real stories of problems.