ATM cards

[Gandtee]

Does the Bank's not accepting magnetic stripes/strips on debit cards after Jan 15th have anything to do with six digit pins as against four digit? My UK cards have four digits. Will I be able to use them here? Are four digit pins magnetic stripes/strips.?

[allane]

I don't have a direct answer to your question. If you are still in the UK, you are best advised to ask your bank, and switch to a 6 digit PIN card now, if that is what they advise.

[Gandtee]

12 minutes ago, allane said:

I don't have a direct answer to your question. If you are still in the UK, you are best advised to ask your bank, and switch to a 6 digit PIN card now, if that is what they advise.

 I'm in Thailand and have been requesting six digit cards from my UK bank HSBC for the last two months to no avail. It's time to pull out of HSBC. I've read many complaints about them. Thanks anyway.

[ThaiBunny]

AFAIK it's each issuing bank's prerogative to determine the number of digits. The ATM simply reads the chip on the card which will tell it how many digits to expect. It looks as though the Thai banks are all moving to six digits but I've had six digits on my Visa debit card from Krungsri for (I think) a couple of years now

 

My non-Thai cards (chipped) are all 4-digit and I don't anticipate any problems - I also use them successfully in Krungsri ATMs currently

Edited December 21, 2019 by ThaiBunny

[KhunBENQ]

Bangkok Bank was the first that issued a chip card to me and the pin was/is still 4 digits.

Would be surprised if they gave no notice about changing pin or the like.

 

[Pib]

OP,

  No impact on your ability to continue to use your foreign card whether it has 4 or 6 digits PIN. 

 

   Basically the BOT has told Thai bank to only issue cards that have a chip....stop issuing cards that have a magnetic strip only.  All my Thai bank cards have transitioned to chip and magnetic strip vs just having a strip only.  Just like all of my US credit and debit card which have a chip and magnetic strip.  The great majority of merchants will only use the chip when processing a transaction as it provides more fraudulent transaction protection for them.

[treetops]

On 12/21/2019 at 6:17 AM, KhunBENQ said:

Bangkok Bank was the first that issued a chip card to me and the pin was/is still 4 digits.

Would be surprised if they gave no notice about changing pin or the like.

Have you made a withdrawal at a BBL ATM recently?  For the last couple of months using my "old" 4 digit pin card, the ATM put up a warning that I had to have it replaced with a deadline date early next year, which I've now done.

[Pib]

4 minutes ago, treetops said:

Have you made a withdrawal at a BBL ATM recently?  For the last couple of months using my "old" 4 digit pin card, the ATM put up a warning that I had to have it replaced with a deadline date early next year, which I've now done.

Does your Bangkok Bank card have a chip?  I'm guessing not. 

 

The wife and I have a Bangkok Bank Visa chipped debit card....uses a 4 digit PIN....we are not getting any notices when using it in a Bangkok Bank ATM.

Edited December 22, 2019 by Pib

[treetops]

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

Does your Bangkok Bank card have a chip?  I'm guessing not. 

 

The wife and I have a Bangkok Bank Visa chipped debit card....uses a 4 digit PIN....we are not getting any notices when using it in a Bangkok Bank ATM.

Yes, both old and new had/have a chip.

[Pib]

Was the card nearing its natural expiration date?  If so, since the card was chipped already but if it was just nearing it's expiration date then that's probably why you were getting the notice.  I think you start getting such a notice approx 90 days before a card's expiration date.

Edited December 22, 2019 by Pib

[KhunBENQ]

I haven't seen a warning about exchanging the 4 digit PIN chip card.

(as written it was the first chip based card, got it more than a year ago)

But I keep an eye on it. Tomorrow in town, will ask.

As far as I remember I once tried to change the 4 digit PIN to a 6 digit PIN to no avail.

Edited December 22, 2019 by KhunBENQ

[treetops]

8 minutes ago, Pib said:

Was the card nearing its natural expiration date?  If so, since the card was chipped already but if it was just nearing it's expiration date then that's probably why you were getting the notice.  I think you start getting such a notice approx 90 days before a card's expiration date.

It could have been that.  I'm not sure now when it was due to expire, but I've had it for a few years.

[VBF]

Discussed here but concerning SCB not Bangkok Bank but I think much of it relevant to both. 

 

 

 

[Madgee]

I got a letter from BB last week stating that my old 4 pin visa debit would be defunct as from Jan 15th.

Took the letter with my old card to the local branch and they gave me a new 6 pin Mastercard debit card as a replacement.

 

Note:

The new card is linked to my standard account along with online banking and a slightly lower SMS notice when spending 400฿ or more. Also the SMS is more detailed giving the name of the recipient. Obviously the card number is different.

It took about 30 mins to complete the trade in along with the usual 'tree of paper' used.

The old visa card still had 3 more years to run before expiry.

Edited December 22, 2019 by Madgee
More info.

[Pib]

28 minutes ago, Madgee said:

I got a letter from BB last week stating that my old 4 pin visa debit would be defunct as from Jan 15th.

Took the letter with my old card to the local branch and they gave me a new 6 pin Mastercard debit card as a replacement.

 

Note:

The new card is linked to my standard account along with online banking and a slightly lower SMS notice when spending 400฿ or more. Also the SMS is more detailed giving the name of the recipient. Obviously the card number is different.

It took about 30 mins to complete the trade in along with the usual 'tree of paper' used.

The old visa card still had 3 more years to run before expiry.

Did you old Visa card have a chip?

[Madgee]

9 hours ago, Pib said:

Did you old Visa card have a chip?

No.

It was the old style with a magnetic strip, issued to me over 6 years ago.

I forgot to mention, if you have renewed your passport during this time, they require your old and new passport to waste a tree with.

 

[treetops]

7 hours ago, Madgee said:

I forgot to mention, if you have renewed your passport during this time, they require your old and new passport to waste a tree with.

Ha ha, I got hit with that too, but just the new one.

[KhunBENQ]

Today I used my Bangkok Bank VISA debit card with chip and 4 digit PIN.

No problem, no warning.

After pocketing the money I (again) tried a PIN change from 4 digit to 6 digit.

Does not work. One of the wordings is "or number of digits wrong".

Card is valid until 04/21 and can hopefully use it until then.

After that being forced to Mastercard (having jumped the "Union Pay" only phase).

 

[Caldera]

18 hours ago, Madgee said:

No.

It was the old style with a magnetic strip, issued to me over 6 years ago.

I forgot to mention, if you have renewed your passport during this time, they require your old and new passport to waste a tree with.

 

They once tried that nonsense on me, too. I just showed them Thai immigration's transfer stamps in my new passport which include the passport number of my old passport. They copied that and didn't insist on seeing my old passport anymore.

[FredLee]

My wife and I do not use our debit cards from our US credit union very often. Yesterday I tried to withdraw money from BBK and Krungthai atm's and it wasn't accepted. On both atm's it accepted my pin and amount I wanted to withdraw, but then said the transaction could not be completed and to contact my bank. My wife tried hers (different account) with the same results. We were able to successfully use a Siam bank's atm. Both of our debit cards have the chip and magnetic strip but only the 4 digit pin. We also have accounts at BBK and had our BBK debit cards updated to the 6 digit pin when they put out the notice. I don't recall receiving anything from them about their new policy affecting debit cards from a foreign bank.