Customers logging on to Egg can now call up their PIN by entering the three-digit security code on the back of their cards. The new service is being launched amid fears that a UK-wide conversion to PIN-based transactions at the point-of-sale could be stymied by consumers suffering from information overload.

Jerry Toher, marketing director at Egg, comments: "With the vast amount of information consumers are required to remember there is a great temptation to write (PINs) down however this is not advisable."

In an Egg-commissioned survey of over 1000 adults conducted in February, ICM found that 41% of people admitted to being more forgetful now then they used to be, with nearly a quarter (22%) attributing this to the increasing number of passwords or codes they need to remember. Nearly a third (31%) admitted to forgetting one of their pass codes every month.

The research found that nearly all Brits (92%) use access codes at least on a weekly basis and a nearly a third (28%) use them several times a day.

Commenting, Professor Evan Heit, Warwick University, says: "Whether a fact will actually be remembered will depend on other psychological factors such as whether it is personally relevant or meaningful, and whether it will be confused with other information. So, for example, a person would not be able to learn a lot of different passwords because these would be meaningless and easily confused."

The latest research tallies with an earlier survey commissioned by Visa which found that two thirds of consumers in the UK have problems remembering multiple PIN codes.