Women Ignore Basic Rules of Credit & Debit Card Security

LONDON, May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

A survey released today by Alaric (http://www.alaric.com) finds that nearly half of women (46%) have told someone else the PIN for their credit or debit card - compared to just 27% of men. In comparison, only 25% of women and 18% of men have ever revealed the PIN/passcode for their mobile phones.

Overall, the research revealed that 30% of Brits surveyed had shared their PIN with their partner, 5% with a parent, 4% with a child and 3% with a friend. The study also analysed how often people change the PIN for the credit or debit card they use most often, finding that 40% of men have changed it in the past year - compared to just 25% of women.

David Divitt, principal fraud consultant at Alaric, a global supplier of fraud prevention and payments solutions said, "Given the number of times that people are sharing their PIN with others, we would hope to see PINs being changed much more regularly. For women especially, who seem to be much more relaxed than men about the need to protect their cards, it is worrying that 25% said they had never changed the PIN, and another 41% said only when they first received their card."

The survey highlighted Brits' need for their mobile phones, finding that three quarters of people admit they never deliberately leave their mobile phone at home, and only 6% are happy to go out without their phone every day.

"We can see that people protect their phones better than their cards, and don't like to leave home without them, which is good news for those initiatives that are driving the use of mobile phones for payments and banking, rather than relying on credit and debit cards," continued Mr Divitt.

The research of 300 people across the UK was commissioned by Alaric and conducted by Research Now in April 2013.

About Alaric (http://www.alaric.com)

Alaric is a global supplier of fraud prevention and payments processing products.  Alaric's products allow financial institutions, processors and retailers to manage ATM, POS, ecommerce and mobile payment or banking transactions, deliver complex multi-channel payments integration and carry out enterprise fraud and risk management.

Alaric's focus is on customer empowerment ensuring its users can stay ahead of the market.  Alaric's products are designed to be rapidly customisable by customers allowing them to take strategic control of their system investments. Alaric's customers get the best of both worlds: an unprecedented degree of control over their solutions while retaining all the benefits and economies of using product-based solutions. The Alaric product line up comprises 'Fractals' fraud prevention and 'Authentic' payments technology.

@alaricsystems