Charities savage banks over chip and Pin

BANKS and credit card providers are effectively discriminating against the disabled by not making them aware of the new high-tech alternative to chip and Pin cards, leading campaigners claimed today.

People with visual impairments can't use chip and Pin cards securely because they can't see the pads properly and also can't tell when someone is looking over their shoulder.

The banks have developed an alternative, chip and signature, which relies on the new high-tech chips in the card as well as a back-up in the form of a signature.

But a mystery shopping exercise by the Royal National Institute for the Blind has found that few bank staff are aware of chip and signature. When asked, just one in five bank branches and about half of call centre staff were able to give correct information out on their availability.

Janice Allen, a spokeswoman for the National Consumer Council, said the lack of promotion of chip and signature cards amounted to 'discrimination'.

She added: 'It's time that the banks and their card payment services business Apacs thought about their responsibilities here. It isn't just the disabled who are affected but anyone who is getting on and has trouble remembering Pin numbers. Cognitive impairment is often associated with old people but it's also a problem with anyone who has mild dementia and other conditions.'

Allen added: 'New research shows the significance of failing memory in old age. It has a huge impact on the ability to use Pin numbers and if you can't use the new chip and Pin cards you are excluded from basic services that you have got used to using.'

In a letter published in the Daily Telegraph today, directors of six charities ? Help the Aged, Age Concern, Citizens Advice, the RNIB and the Alzheimer's Society - urged banks to get a grip with the situation and start promoting chip and signature more widely.

Apacs rejected the charities' criticism as outdated and claimed that a 'great deal' had changed since the mystery shop carried out by the RNIB. The association has carried out its own research and found disabled card users mostly happy wtih chip and Pin.

'Anyone who isn't happy has only to talk to their card provider,' a spokesman added, expressing 'disappointment' at the charities' decision to criticise the chip and Pin roll-out so publicly.

He admitted, however, that not all banks might be putting out the correct message: 'There's a possibility of a communications issue between what we're saying to everyone and what the front line bank staff are saying, but that's something we're addressing.'

In January, This is Money publicised the case of Mary Summers, a visually impaired account holder who was refused a chip and signature card by her bank, Abbey National. The RNIB says it plans to support a claim under the Disability Discrimination Act against banks which don't give their disabled customers an easy-to-use alternative to chip and Pin.

Abbey, formally taken over in November by the Spanish Banco Santander, has rejected the threat of litigation, declaring that is was taking all reasonable steps to ensure it complied. 'The Act requires us to make reasonable efforts,' a spokesman told This is Money, adding: 'That's what we're doing.'