topic Re: Credit Cards and PIN in Credit Cards

Credit Cards and PIN

Dawn — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:37:10 GMT

My son needs to activate his Cap One card. The insert encourages calling to activate the card and requesting a PIN at that point in time.

I have never used a PIN with a CC so I need to prepare him before he calls. Isn't the PIN only for Cash Advance transactions? If so ... I want to strongly discourage him from obtaining a PIN ... he does not need to ever consider a Cash Advance.

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:46:00 GMT

I am with you- only needs a PIN for cash advances.

denbar2003 wrote:

My son needs to activate his Cap One card. The insert encourages calling to activate the card and requesting a PIN at that point in time.

I have never used a PIN with a CC so I need to prepare him before he calls. Isn't the PIN only for Cash Advance transactions? If so ... I want to strongly discourage him from obtaining a PIN ... he does not need to ever consider a Cash Advance.

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:04:19 GMT

Well, when I received my seamiles card they asked me to create an PIN for identification purpose.

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:07:22 GMT

credit4me wrote:
Well, when I received my seamiles card they asked me to create an PIN for identification purpose.

Me too, and I have never used it. I don't even remember it.

They ask you to create one because they want you to take cash advances. You taking cash advances = more finance charges for them.

Message Edited by cheddar on 01-29-2008 09:07 AM

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Dawn — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:45:22 GMT

cheddar wrote:
They ask you to create one because they want you to take cash advances. You taking cash advances = more finance charges for them.

This is what I suspected since I was not asked to create a PIN when I activated a recent Chase card. Just another thing to try to avoid ... like the payment protection plan that they push so hard to get you to enroll in.

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:49:28 GMT

If you feel your son is responsible and mature enough to have a credit card - he should be responsible enough to obtain cash advances, as well as be aware of it's consequences.

At one time or another most of us will need cash in an emergency.

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:04:09 GMT

cobra19 wrote:
If you feel your son is responsible and mature enough to have a credit card - he should be responsible enough to obtain cash advances, as well as be aware of it's consequences.

At one time or another most of us will need cash in an emergency.

Ditto that. Sometimes you can be stuck in neighborhood where nobody takes credit cards and you need to catch a cab or something or you're stranded. They can come in handy, provided you pay it off immediately.

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:22:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
If you feel your son is responsible and mature enough to have a credit card - he should be responsible enough to obtain cash advances, as well as be aware of it's consequences.

At one time or another most of us will need cash in an emergency.
Ditto that. Sometimes you can be stuck in neighborhood where nobody takes credit cards and you need to catch a cab or something or you're stranded. They can come in handy, provided you pay it off immediately.
Not sure that I agree. I don't think that there's an either-or, on-off switch for responsibility. Some young people are great for such things, and not only would they never use the cash advance, but they would also manage to hang on to the PIN number (this would be my middle kid.) Others aren't there yet (this would be my oldest and youngest.)

This doesn't sound like a case of mommy won't let me. It sounds more like "you might not want to get into that area yet." The penalties for mishandling credit are bad enough for just charging stuff. Maybe he needs to get some experience under his belt first, and that seems like useful advice from someone with more experience.

My oldest and youngest have both gotten burns from late payments, and I had to talk them into looking at adding credit. They are both very wary of credit land mines. And both of them happily have increasing scores.

edit: meant to add, I don't have PIN numbers on my CC's either. I carry debit cards as well, if I get stuck for cash. I keep trying to reduce complexity, with varying levels of success.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 01-29-2008 11:22 AM

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Dawn — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:32:28 GMT

TheCynicalOne wrote:
Sometimes you can be stuck in neighborhood where nobody takes credit cards and you need to catch a cab or something or you're stranded. They can come in handy, provided you pay it off immediately.

Ummm ... did I miss something here? You are stuck in a neighborhood where nobody takes credit cards, but you can use your credit card to obtain a cash advance?

I do understand your point, but we must all also realize that many people choose to have other ways that are less lucrative for the credit card companies to get our hands on cash ... in an emergency.

And the caveat of paying any cash advances off immediately is one well worth noting ... if one chooses to use that feature.

Edit: However, to avoid the immediate finance charges that will start accruing as of day one of the cash advance, I would think you would have to pay your entire CC balance as of that day and possibly not add any additional charges to your card for the rest of the month?

Actually, I think it would require contacting the CCC to get the appropriate "pay-off" so as to not be surprised with a small finance charge related balance carrying over to the next month. This just gets too complicated for a dedicated PIFer.

Message Edited by denbar2003 on 01-29-2008 01:32 PM

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:29:57 GMT

I think cash advances on CC's are to close to Payday loans for me to be at all interested. I know they aren't the same exactly, but I sure don't ever want to pay a 3% fee just to get some cash. Not to mention the higher interest rate, which won't be paid down until your lower interest rate balances are paid off (at least for the cards I have). Not that I ever carry a balance

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:40:14 GMT

kry.............agree with you 100%. I think all of us here, given the option, would NOT opt for a cash advance. IMO, however, there is nothing wrong with having that option should the need arise.

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:54:21 GMT

Agreed, assuming you have the self control. I have a friend who got into the payday trap and kept going back week after week refinancing the same $100 loan. He did this for a couple of months. I bailed him out and then found out a while later that he went back and did the same thing!

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:14:06 GMT

I have 2 cards with pins. I know the pin #s but darned if I remember which cards have them. Never used the cash advance but it's there as a safety net if I'm in dire circumstances.

IIRC a co-worker got a cash advance without a pin. He went into a bank with his CC card & ID (could be mistaken but we were doing a project in RI and were short on cash, circa mid 1980's).

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:02:08 GMT

What kind of emergency could possibly come up where

1) you need more cash than you can get from an ATM

and

2) the entity you need to pay all this cash to doesn't accept credit cards?

Don't most legitimate merchants you'd need to pay thousands of dollars to in an emergency accept credit cards?

Emergency locksmiths, for example, all accept credit cards because they know people probably don't have hundreds of dollars in cash on them when they get locked out of somewhere.

I could think of a few situations where you might need a large amount of money in a big hurry and can't use a credit card, but they all involve unseemly characters and equally unseemly activities.

Message Edited by cheddar on 01-29-2008 08:02 PM

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:51:28 GMT

I haven't done a cash advance from a credit card in over 20 years. However, I remember that I could get a cash advance on a credit card from most banks, and not use an ATM. I didn't need a pin number to obtain cash. Obviously, a bank doesn't have the flexibility of hours that an ATM has to offer, and there are still fees involved.

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:55:13 GMT

I have one p.i.n. on one of my cards. I've only used the function once, and when receiving my statement, believe you me once is enough! The charge was outrageous. Never again.

I believe the ccc's tout the benefit of having those, is to simply make money. It serves no purpose at all, other than to get cash out of an atm.

I guess I'm lucky. I've never been in any situation where such an emergency would exist where I would need the "benefit" of a pin.

Re: Credit Cards and PIN

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:28:13 GMT

I always shred my pin for CCs I dont use them for cash advance so I figured if I shred them then I dont ever have to even worry about the tempation ever arising