May 13, 2002
I realized yesterday that I was going to need some cash, and since the state still hasn't gotten around to mailing me my check that meant I needed to do a cash advance with one of my credit cards. It had been so long since I'd done a cash advance (1996, maybe?) that I'd forgotten all my PINs and had to call the credit card companies to see about getting new ones. American Express was no help -- they couldn't assign me a new PIN over the phone so all they could do was mail me a form to request a new one.
Discover, on the other hand, said that they don't keep PIN information around (I'm guessing that means its encrytped so it can't be retrieved from the database easily) but I could recieve an emergency PIN that would be valid for 24 hours if I needed the money right at that instant. So the guy bounced me over to the Security people and they got my new PIN entered in. I drove to the ATM, made my withdrawl and went on with my day. I'll get a form for a new permanent PIN in a few days.
It's the simple things that make me prefer one company over another. Sure, Discover is slightly less secure, but they provide enough security that someone could steal my credit card from my apartment and not be able to get money. That's enough for me.
