When the first of August rolls around this year the custom of verifying credit or debit cards with a signature will end. Card holders will have just two options. Verify the card with a PIN - or adopt the " Tap and Go " system for purchases under a hundred dollars.
Modern cards are encrypted with a " chip " that can be read by the equipment on retailers counters. The transaction is speeded up by the customer tapping the card against the reader - and having the balance instantly deducted. The downside is that if the card is lost - or falls into the hands of a bandit - it is virtually identical to a banknote.
Those still using the old signature cards need to act promptly and upgrade to PIN before they become extinct in three months time, and for some the need to memorise a PIN will be a problem. Those who find it difficult to retain a memory of numbers often find themselves standing at an ATM in total confusion and simply can not handle modern technology.
There is a clever way to circumvent that problem. It is easier to remember a word than a number, and so if that person selects a ten letter word or phrase in which no letters appear twice it can become their " code breaker " to provide a link between letters and numbers.
Suppose the word chosen was PNEUMATICS. Simply allocate 0 to 9 to each of the letters and select the correct letters to match the PIN numbers. Those letters mean absolutely nothing to anyone else, but with a little mental gymnastics the person can recall the PIN - and activate the card.
Of course, you would need to keep your code word confidential, but the letters to translate from letters to numbers can be openly displayed - because they are meaningless without an observer being aware of the base code word.
Even the problems of modern technology can be solved - with recourse to the methods of yesteryear !
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