What makes a secure PIN and password?

Your Online Banking PIN must be four digits long. We won't accept:

• numbers in an ascending or descending order, for example 1234 or 7654
• the same number three or four times in a row, for example 1222 or 7777.

Your Online Banking password must have between six and twenty characters, and contain both letters and numbers. We won't accept:

• hyphens, punctuation marks, or spaces
• special characters such as @ or £

The best PIN and password to choose are ones that are easy for you to remember however hard for anyone else to guess or find out. Avoid using any part of:

• your birthday, or any family birthdays
• your address, house number or postcode
• your phone number
• your account number or sort code
• your name, or any family members, names
• common words such as 'Secret' or 'Password'.

To protect the money in your bank account, you must take care of your PIN and password:

• If you suspect that someone knows or has found out your PIN or password, change it immediately.
• Don't tell anyone your PIN or password, for any reason.
• Don't write down your PIN or password, on paper or in an email.
• Don't let anyone look over your shoulder when you're logging in or authorising transactions.
• Don't ever respond to an email asking for your PIN or password - we will never ask you for this in an email. If we ask for your PIN or password on the phone, we will only ask for two random digits or characters, not the whole number or word.

Please remember that you will use your PIN and password with both Online Banking and telephone banking.