Don't they have to deal with those forgotten PIN calls anyway? Don't you need a PIN to get cash out of an ATM?
My debit card and its PIN are used for a few different things - in-store payments, using the ATM, and authenticating when in-person at a bank. The last one is interesting - each desk at the bank, both the tellers and the offices where you talk to someone, has a terminal and every interaction starts with putting in your debit card and entering your PIN.
Extending this to credit card is no big deal - my main bank syncs the PIN between the debit and credit cards. I only have a credit card with the other bank that I use and I haven't set foot in one of their branches in 20 years, so I have no idea whether they sync the PINs or use their cards for in-person authentication.
Imagine that in this other alien culture, most people were using credit cards for most transactions and rarely ever use their ATM/debit card. They don't have a day to day use for cash so do not frequent ATMs nor do they have much reason to frequent bank branches.
They've been presenting a credit card and making a squiggle with a pen for years and never remembered a PIN at all. Their credit card bill is paid electronically online somehow, either automatically because of a direct debit configuration setup years before or via an interactive banking website. These were authenticated with a web password and perhaps archaic knowledge of a routing number and checking account nunber. No PIN in sight there either...
My debit card and its PIN are used for a few different things - in-store payments, using the ATM, and authenticating when in-person at a bank. The last one is interesting - each desk at the bank, both the tellers and the offices where you talk to someone, has a terminal and every interaction starts with putting in your debit card and entering your PIN.
Extending this to credit card is no big deal - my main bank syncs the PIN between the debit and credit cards. I only have a credit card with the other bank that I use and I haven't set foot in one of their branches in 20 years, so I have no idea whether they sync the PINs or use their cards for in-person authentication.