Credit card pins confusing Brits

Britons are suffering from "pin number overload" with millions of Britons forced to memorise five or more credit card and debit card pin numbers.

Research from Abbey Current Accounts shows the average Briton has at least two different credit or debit card pin codes in their head, but six million UK residents have three, three million have to remember four, and almost two million have to remember five or more security codes.

And this is proving a problem, with 22 million credit and debit card owners saying they have forgotten their pin recently, leading 16 million to write their numbers down to help remember them.

"With many of us holding more and more pieces of plastic in our wallets the challenge of remembering all those pin codes is getting greater," said Abbey head of banking Steve Shore.

"But we really do urge you to try and commit them to memory rather than write them down.

"Otherwise it's like signing a blank cheque for fraudsters. Also, remember that if your cards are lost or stolen, you must report this immediately."

Some 2.4 million Britons keep the piece of paper with their pin codes on it next to their credit cards and debit cards in their wallet.

Another 9.4 million keep their pin numbers written down, but say they have disguised them - for example as part of a fake phone number. That said 1.6 million have taken no steps at all to disguise their pin numbers.

Four million more UK cardholders have stored their pin number in their mobile phone, while 5.7 million people simply use the same number for all their cards.