Oxburgh Row Financial Blog

Don’t use these PIN numbers with your credit, debit or ATM cards

March 26, 2015

If you lose your credit, debit or ATM card, how difficult would it be for someone to clean out your account? Easier than you might think.

More than one-quarter of all credit and debit card passwords could be guessed by attempting just 20 combinations of four-digit numbers, security experts say.

Here are other numbers you don’t want to use with any card that requires a PIN or password:

Your birthdate. If you lose your wallet, a thief has access to your birthdate from your driver’s license.

The ever-popular 1234. That’s one of the most popular PIN numbers — and one of the first thieves try, along with 12345 and 123456. Other bad ideas: 1111, 2222, 3333 and so on.

The seven-digit 8675309. Remember that Tommy Tutone song?

Two-number combinations. Don’t use combinations such as 4545, 1313, and so on.

By the way, you also may want to pass on 3141592654. Those are the first digits of Pi.