< nr. 84 >

Pinpas

Year: 1987

With the invention of the debit card we always have money 'in our pockets'. No more trouble with cash or picking up money at the bank. PIN stands for Personal Identification Number. Since 1987 we (in the Netherlands) can purchase with the debit card. After a careful introduction pinning has conquered Holland swiftly. Nowadays Pin is, after cash, the most important payment method in Holland.

Since the first of Januari 2012 pinning is no more. We still use the same card as we did before but now we use the EMV-chip. The card makes a quarter turn and we stick the whole card in the pin device, instead of sweeping it passed a magnetstrip. So, although we do actually pin any more, it's still populairy called pinning. The new 'pinning' is a much safer system. This because of the chips, which is harder to copy then the magnetstrip. The result is that skimming is much harder.

Design wise there is few excitement to be mentioned about the debit card. Banks decide for themselfes how the card of there cardholders looks. Often this makes for a boring design supplemented by the logo of the bank. ING accountholders can, for a small amount, print there debit card with a photo or an other picture.