Until a few weeks ago, I had never used a debit card in my life. That was a good thing. Debit cards and I don’t get along very well. I know people who are lactose intolerant, and I am pretty certain that I am debit card intolerant.
One of our ministry bank accounts has a debit card. Actually, since Scott and I are both signers on the account, we each have a debit card. I never wanted a debit card – they don’t earn miles or hotel stays, they require a PIN, I’d rather use a credit card, etc. – but I have one. Therefore I had to learn how to use it, and I debuted that process a few weeks ago at Staples.
We had set the PIN for the debit cards to a certain four-digit number that’s easy for us to remember. We assumed that when we set that PIN, it was set for that account, period, end of discussion. So when I went to pay for our ministry purchases at Staples, I was shocked and slightly embarrassed to have the little screen tell me that I had entered an invalid PIN. I knew that PIN as well as my middle name. It simply could not be invalid!
I faltered there at the checkstand, not knowing what to do to pay for my order, and of course, there were people in line behind me. The cashier told me to try again, which I did, with exactly the same result. Then he told me to just run it as credit, rather than debit. I did, and I guessed that the bill was paid. However, I was skeptical, so I immediately called the bank to find out if I would be sent a credit card bill for that transaction. NO! It turns out that that even by running it through as credit, it had already come out of our account.
Well, that made my lightning fast mind think, “Why use the debit feature at all?” I came home and told Scott that the PIN was wrong. He subsequently called the bank and was told that he’d have to come in personally to re-set the PIN. Which he did, and we thought all was well.
All was not well. We gave my card to one of our helpers, so that he could purchase some stuff for the ministry. Lo, and behold, he had the same problem – invalid PIN – AFTER Scott had supposedly re-set the PIN. I told him to run it as credit, and he did. I called then called the bank to tell them that evidently the stupid PIN was wrong and to please re-set it to the four digit number of our choice, but my “Personal Banker” told me that the bank didn’t have any record of the PIN (really?!??) and that I would have to bring the card in personally to re-set it. Sigh. Life got busy, and I totally forgot about the problem – probably because I never use debit cards. . .
Then today, our helper was making a ministry purchase with the debit card, and he called to say that (of course) the PIN claimed to be invalid, but the store where he was shopping required the card to be run as a debit, not as a credit. He had held up other people in line trying to deal with this. How frustrating. I asked him to pay for the supplies, and the ministry will reimburse him, but I was MIGHTILY fed up with the stupid debit card / PIN situation.
So I called the bank and was told (again) that I would need to bring the card in personally to re-set the PIN. Why on earth a perfectly good PIN had to be re-set to what it already was made no sense to me, and a trip to the bank was not what I had planned today, but whatever.
I went to the bank. I sat waiting for 15 minutes till “My Personal Banker,” “K,” appeared. This lady is not my favorite person in the world. We have dealt with her on numerous issues over the past couple of years, and about 63% of the time, she messes something up. I was really fervently hoping to get the other personal banker, “S,” who is very professional and handles things well, but it was not to be.
Sitting at “S’s” desk, I calmly explained the problem and my frustration. I handed her Scott’s debit card for that account and told her that I wanted to re-set the PIN. (I did not mention to her that the PIN was already exactly what we wanted it to be and that why it would have to be re-set to itself was far beyond the reasoning powers of my 50-year-old brain.) She asked why I wanted to re-set Scott’s PIN and I told her that someone else had my card. She was okay with that. She pulled up all the blurb on the screen and then announced that this debit card did not pull funds from the aforementioned ministry account, but from a different account we have!
At that point, I was dangerously close to losing my cool. I called Scott and explained that I was his frustrated wife at the bank, that “K” said the debit card from our ministry account was actually pulling funds from a different account, and would he please speak to “K” directly. He would and he did. She insisted it was a different account, but after a few minutes on the phone with My Hero, she realized, admitted, and apologized for her error. It DID pull from that ministry account.
She then further explained to Scott the missing link that solved the great debit card mystery: debit card PINs are tied to cards, not to accounts. Golly Gee Whillilkers, as Gomer Pyle would say. That cleared things up considerably. If Scott had indeed re-set his PIN a few weeks ago (back to what it had always been), then his card should have worked fine, but mine – which our helper had – would not necessarily work. It, of course, still had the initial correct PIN, which had never been re-set to the correct PIN.
I then re-set the PINs on both cards, and “K” walked me outside to the ATM, where we tried Scott’s card, and it worked. I then called our helper and asked him to take his (my) debit card to his local bank branch and try it, which he did, and that card worked, too. Hallelujah!!!
The only outstanding question is this: Now that both cards have the correct PIN(s), (which are, uh. . . the same PIN(s) they have had all along), how can we know if either card will work the next time we try to make a purchase? And, of course, there is this corollary question: When will one or the other of the cards decide that in order to function, it needs its PIN re-set to what it already is?