diff --git a/camelot/handlers.py b/camelot/handlers.py
index 4955f03..bd4c031 100644
--- a/camelot/handlers.py
+++ b/camelot/handlers.py
@@ -33,13 +33,14 @@ class PDFHandler(object):
         self.filepath = filepath
         if not filepath.lower().endswith('.pdf'):
             raise NotImplementedError("File format not supported")
-        self.pages = self._get_pages(self.filepath, pages)
+
         if password is None:
             self.password = ''
         else:
             self.password = password
             if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
                 self.password = self.password.encode('ascii')
+        self.pages = self._get_pages(self.filepath, pages)
 
     def _get_pages(self, filepath, pages):
         """Converts pages string to list of ints.