Polish Mastercard debit card requires PESEL

I got a Bank Pekao Mastercard debit card in one of the Euro 2012 fanzones in Poland - there was essentially no choice if I wanted to buy anything.

I decided to login back home and check the balance. It seems this is a proper debit card that I should be able to use anywhere.

Logging in requires me to give all sorts of details, including a "PESEL", which it seems is a universal Polish ID. This is even though I've selected Ireland as my country. So I can't complete the login, and thus can't see my balance.

Have I been royally ripped off here? Or am I missing something?

I got a visa debit card(and bank account) from BZWBK a couple of years ago, you do not need a pesel. You should of being given a piece of paper with login details.

Just send a email to their help section and they will get back to you. How can you be ripped off? I did need the full bank account number, including what we call sort code. In Polish banks, your account has 1 long number(BIC) code.

OK I figured it out - I needed to click no to "Resident". Not exactly clear - it obviously means "Resident of Poland" but it would be nice if they said that.

The whole thing is a rip-off because fans have no choice but to buy these debit cards to buy anything in the fanzones. I'm sure lots of fans end up with credit left which they don't use - free money for the bank. But it's UEFA doing the rip-off, not the Polish bank.

Could you tell me on what site you checked your balance?
Thanks