Why in the name of all that is bollocks

[Rev+]

Do we have bank/credit cards with raised silver-printed numbers that you can't bloody read in anything other than very forgiving natural light?  And, furthermore, why has there been no improvement in this shit in my lifetime?

Felt so good just now getting to the end of my Halifax one, because the last four digits are printed on a mid-grey background.  You might think that would be harder to read, but the slighter contrast works a lot better than the dark blue of the rest of the card.  You can sort of get a handle on it, without light banging off in multiple directions while you keep tilting to see if that's a 1 or a 7, or a 3 or a 5.

If this is the sort of cashless society Corbyn wants then count me out.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Got my new one last week. Numbers aren't raised anymore. Fucking state of it.

[seepage]

Got a replacement keyboard. The keys light up. You have to recharge it. But the keys only need to light up because the symbols are dark grey on black. If they were printed in white there would be no need for them to light up.

[BlodwynPig]

You wanted Tron, you got Ron

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Got a replacement keyboard. The keys light up. You have to recharge it. But the keys only need to light up because the symbols are dark grey on black. If they were printed in white there would be no need for them to light up.

But the characters presumably don't wear out on heavy use like some, intensely shitty keyboards.

[Paul Calf]

Got a replacement keyboard. The keys light up. You have to recharge it. But the keys only need to light up because the symbols are dark grey on black. If they were printed in white there would be no need for them to light up.

If you're using the keyboard in a very bright environment, it cuts through the glare.

[olliebean]

Never had any problem reading the numbers on bank cards. Does this mean I'm a superhero?

[Butchers Blind]

Haha, look at grandad using bank cards.

[Blumf]

Got my new one last week. Numbers aren't raised anymore. Fucking state of it.

RIP Card Imprinter

[poodlefaker]

Let's make the background black, right; looks really cool and classy, yeah? And the scrollbar really really dark grey, like barely perceivably lighter than the background. Cool.

[seepage]

If you're using the keyboard in a very bright environment, it cuts through the glare.

It does make it a bit easier to spot the oatcake crumbs and shards of manchego.

[Sebastian Cobb]

If you're using the keyboard in a very bright environment, it cuts through the glare.

if it's that bright surely you can barely see the screen.

apparently the old macbooks with the light-up apple on the back of the screen sometimes let light through them if you were working outside on bright days.

[canadagoose]

Do we have bank/credit cards with raised silver-printed numbers that you can't bloody read in anything other than very forgiving natural light?  And, furthermore, why has there been no improvement in this shit in my lifetime?

Felt so good just now getting to the end of my Halifax one, because the last four digits are printed on a mid-grey background.  You might think that would be harder to read, but the slighter contrast works a lot better than the dark blue of the rest of the card.  You can sort of get a handle on it, without light banging off in multiple directions while you keep tilting to see if that's a 1 or a 7, or a 3 or a 5.

If this is the sort of cashless society Corbyn wants then count me out.

First Direct and Starling have flat cards with normal printed numbers, if it helps.

[thenoise]

Just memorise them. How many cards do you have? It helps if you did too much Internet shopping in the days before your clever computer remembered the numbers for you, and didn't change bank account since.

[olliebean]

They change the numbers every time the card is renewed these days (my bank does anyway), so you'd have to re-learn them every 3-4 years.

[earl_sleek]

I've had the same numbers for 3 or 4 cards now, so not every bank does. Know the numbers better than some of my friends' birthdays.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I got a new one recently. It doesn't have embossed numbers, nor even a gloss finish. It looks like one of those dummy cards you get in new wallets. It feels like the bank telling me what a povvo I am compared to the high rollers, with their platinum cards. If I get any poorer, they'll probably come round and confiscate the hologram.

[Tony Tony Tony]

But the characters presumably don't wear out on heavy use like some, intensely shitty keyboards.

The keys on my keyboard are all pretty much pristine with the exception of these four, O,R,P and N.

[Rev+]

I've had the same numbers for 3 or 4 cards now, so not every bank does. Know the numbers better than some of my friends' birthdays.

Your 8 digit account number doesn't change, but the 'long number' on your card that you need for online purchases and that changes every time your card is issued.  If that hasn't changed for you then it's a massive security issue, so which bank are you with?

[Goldentony]

WHY THE FUCK DO WE EVEN HAVE CARDS AT ALL FUCKING AMERICAN CRAP

[canadagoose]

Your 8 digit account number doesn't change, but the 'long number' on your card that you need for online purchases and that changes every time your card is issued.  If that hasn't changed for you then it's a massive security issue, so which bank are you with?

It sometimes does stay the same with Visa Debit, but the expiry and security code change. I don't know why; seems a bit daft. My TSB one was certainly the same when it was renewed.

[seepage]

The 'long number' on my Barclaycard Visa credit cards has stayed the same each time they were reissued, only the 3-digit CVV and expiry date has changed. The only time the long number changed was when a card was cancelled after a security breach.

[MojoJojo]

Do we have bank/credit cards with raised silver-printed numbers that you can't bloody read in anything other than very forgiving natural light?  And, furthermore, why has there been no improvement in this shit in my lifetime?

It's obviously a deliberate decision to make it harder to skim the numbers with photos/video. Numbnuts.

[MojoJojo]

First Direct and Starling have flat cards with normal printed numbers, if it helps.

My first direct card is fairly new and has embossed numbers. Think it's probably a when you got your card thing, rather than a bank thing, and probably means they've stopped supporting card I printers.

[edit] no imprinter are still a thing, you're just screwed if you don't have embossed numbers. Or they'll copy them out by hand[/edit]

[Icehaven]

I was paying for something through an app with my debit card yesterday and used the  app's scan function, and it got 3 numbers of the card number wrong. I've used it loads of times before and it's never done that, I didn't think it was possible. No big hassle really as you can just do it again or give in and type it in, but I was just surprised it did it at all.

[earl_sleek]

Your 8 digit account number doesn't change, but the 'long number' on your card that you need for online purchases and that changes every time your card is issued.

Nope, I've had the same 16 digit PAN for 3 cards now. A quick google suggests this isn't at all rare.

If that hasn't changed for you then it's a massive security issue, so which bank are you with?

The CVN and expiry date have changed, so I don't see the security issue? I'm with HSBC, who if anything seem a bit too eager to flag legitimate purchases as potentially fraudulent and block my card.

[dissolute ocelot]

Nope, I've had the same 16 digit PAN for 3 cards now. A quick google suggests this isn't at all rare.

If that hasn't changed for you then it's a massive security issue, so which bank are you with?

The CVN and expiry date have changed, so I don't see the security issue? I'm with HSBC, who if anything seem a bit too eager to flag legitimate purchases as potentially fraudulent and block my card.

There are a lot of old files of credit card data online - modern companies mostly protect their data well, and hopefully encrypt, but that wasn't the case in the past and data could be hacked or old disk drives obtained. So if you do have someone's old data, the new card's date is probably 3 years after the last one, and it's possible to guess a 3-digit CVC (e.g. repeated automated transactions), so it's not secure if someone has your old details and your bank doesn't have other security measures. But they probably do.

CVCs aren't very strong anyway: guessable (especially if you have a lot of credit card numbers and an automated system). They can also be compromised by things like looking over someone's shoulder or photographing your card (in contrast to "enter digits 1, 4, and 6 from your passcode"). But banks do a lot of monitoring for suspicious behaviour, and recent advances in annoyingness two-factor authentication coming into effect soon will mean it's irrelevant.

[beanheadmcginty]

My Curve debit card has no numbers on it whatsoever. Just my name. This is being sold as an amazing new security feature rather than them being too cheap/lazy to get their cards printed. The "benefit" of this feature is that you must open the Curve app on your phone in order to see your card details, which automatically disappear after about 10 seconds of viewing them. Needless to say, within about a week I had attached a sticker to my card with all the details written on it.

[Rev+]

There is some weird inconsistency about this stuff as well.  NatWest cards tend to have your sort code but not your account number on them, for some reason.  I can only imagine they're following the US thing where knowing someone's account number allows transactions in both directions.

[touchingcloth]

The raised numbers are designed to scratch your asshole on.