Have you received your new Barclays PinSentry?

Recently Barclays bank has introduced a new security measure for online banking. The Pinsentry machine is the latest little gadget to be introduced after online fraud has steadily risen over the last year. It is thought that this new gadget will greatly improve security for online bankers and the best thing about it is – it’s free!

So just what does this new machine do? Well it is designed just like a chip and pin machine. You simply place the card into the machine and type in your pin number. It then confirms whether it is correct or not and then you are given a long number to type into the computer which you will need in order to be able to log in. You also need the reader to be able to pay someone online too. So it is not possible anymore to just log into the account and send money to somebody else without the use of the reader.

This does greatly improve the security of online banking and it is certainly going to put Barclay’s customer’s minds at ease. The old system was already quite good anyway with both a password and a membership number being needed. However, it was not foolproof and so this new Pinsentry machine will greatly help to keep your details safe and out of reach of fraudsters.

Another thing that is different with the Pinsentry machine is that you have to type in your debit or credit card pin number. The reason security was not quite as good before was because the password you chose could have been known by somebody close to you or it could have been easy to guess. With your pin number nobody usually knows that and so it is definitely a good thing that you need it to log into your account now.

Overall this new handy little card reader is certainly going to help to tackle online fraud. If you haven’t yet received your reader then it would certainly be worth contacting Barclays and asking them for one.