tl;dr – But maybe not for the purpose you think!
Anyone who has a debit/ATM card is familiar with the standard four-digit PIN code needed to access their account at a cash machine for a withdrawal. However, did you know that while traveling, you might also need a pin for your credit card?
Indeed. Many credit cards allow for four-digit PINs to be set as well. While the pin can be used for cash advances at ATMs, that’s extremely ill-advised as the interest rates on that money is sky high (only in the rarest of emergencies should you do this).
Instead, a more common use of this pin is to validate foreign charges that are over a certain amount. I recently encountered this while traveling in Brazil. While attempting to make a purchase using my IHG Rewards Business Card from Chase. The amount was above 1,000 Brazilian Real (~$200), and I was prompted to enter a four-digit PIN on the card reader. Realizing I did not have one, I placed a call to Chase and requested to set a four-digit PIN on my credit card. After successfully doing so, I reattempted the charge a while later and was again prompted to enter the PIN code. I input the code I had just set and got the green check mark of approval.
Most commonly, you’ll encounter this in LATAM, but it’s not a bad idea to set a PIN code on at least one or two of your credit cards before your next trip.
