Did You Know ATM PIN Originally Meant To Be 6 Digit Long?

It was way back in 1967, when ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) wen operational. What a vision the inventor of this amazing machine had, that almost 50 years down the line, there is an ATM at every 50 step.


It has made the life easier and convenient. It offered one of the safest way to carry the money long and use them as and when required.

All you need a Debit / Credit Card with an ATM PIN. Yes, these ATM PIN like a key to our hard earned & well – saved money. A small 4 – digit number is the protecting wall between a thief and the money lying behind.
But if it is so important, why the PIN is only 4 – digit long? Here are some interesting facts related to it:

ATM PIN was originally proposed to be 6 digit long

 

Caroline, wife of John Adrian Shepherd-Barron, Scottish inventor of ATM, unfortunately couldn’t remember a 6 – digit long PIN and thus its length was reduced to 4 digits.
 

Some Banks still find 6 digits safer

 

With some of the banks, when they issue an ATM card to their customers, the default ATM PIN is set to be 6 digits long. Later, the customer can change it to 4 – digits by himself.

 

There are good 10,000 possible and valid combinations of 4 digit PIN using 0-9

 

The most common password is 1234, followed by 1111 and 0000. And the least common is 8068.

Note: Don’t just go and change your PIN to the least common one. Hackers can read this too. 😛😛