US BANK - New Online Banking Security... Grrrr....

Ok, folks, US Bank is extremely Frustrating... I guarantee I'll start looking around for something new.

The people are great! that's why I'm still there - but their Policies are a big fat bag of putrescence.

Frustration numero uno is the fact that they charge 2 bucks if you use an ATM machine that is not their own... I'm not talking about the buck fifty that is charged at the machine, oh no, I speak of an ADDITIONAL charge that US Bank makes to my account because it's computer had to talk to a computer that wasn't owned by US Bank... what a rip off eh?

So, I already have a bad taste in my mouth over it all.

(here's a little something to break up the monotony of this 'Rant Post' note -this is not a 'real' error:



ok, so anyway - the 'new' thing that they are doing is making you answer 3 to 5 questions like;

'who was your favorite grade school teacher?'
'what was your Mothers Grandfathers first pet's second offspring's name and sex?'

you know... standard stuff like that.

Anyway, I have a handy little 'non secure' trick I use for all those 'secret question' lazy security measures that some mom n pop web sites like to use, (mostly it's only used for password retrieval.) I know this isn't perhaps the 'best way' to stay secure online, so I'm not recommending it to be used in general practice. What I do, is I have a phrase that I use to answer all of those questions. It is the same phrase no matter what the question is. Pretty handy isn't it? Anyway it keeps me from having to remember a Ba-jillion diffrent answers to all the silly questions.

Well US Bank, unable to provide normal security for it's users, wants to use the equivalent of "lets play 20 questions" BEFORE you can get to the place where you enter your password in!

They want me to fill out at least 3 questions that they can ask me each time I want to log into their online banking system to check my balance. I think to myself;

"ok, fine, a pain, but what ever."

I attempt to do my little a fore mentioned 'trick' of entering in my same answer to the various questions they present to me, but it's having none of that!

"Answers can not be identical" it spews back in my face.

Well, it's late, I'm irritable anyway, so I go to there Customer service and write them this little rant. Which is the purpose of this post, I wanted to share it with you - but Alas, it's late, and when it's late, I Ramble, sooo, my intro, has ended up longer than the actual Rant!

I'm sure your bored, and I should stick another picture in here, but - I'm not going to do it - lets just power through this together and we can move on with our days ok?

I'll post the Rant below, you can enjoy, and we can all go back about our lives... I'll keep anyone that's interested filled in on the situation here in this thread. :-P

The Rant to their Customer service team... apparently I'll get a response back whiten 24 hours! yay!


---- My e-mail to their cust. service dept. -----

I would like to opt out of your additional security to enter online banking. three security questions is too much hassle, please notify me if I can opt out, or if I need to shop for an online banking provider that can provide a secure online banking experience that is also convenient. (they are out there, heck you used to even be one of them, last week.)

My primary irritation is that your using three security questions, and the fact that the answers can not be the same for all questions. I know it's not 'as' secure as three different answers but C'mon! one secure question would already be enough of an inconvenience, (but tolerable,) but THREE...??... And why in the heck would I want to provide my BANK with all of that personal information about me anyway?

To prevent sharing my personal information with your online databases, it means I'd have to 'make up' the info (in order to keep it secret from you,) and then Remember my lies! (I assume your Data Base gets hacked regularly now that I know you can't provide 'normal' security, 'normally' web sites use the 'secret question' for password retrieval - not as a password to get to the part where you put in your password!!)

At LEAST let me pick one response that works for all three questions! if your un-able to hire an IT department that can keep up with security, and has to rely on the end user doing the brunt of the security for you with this smoke signal method for authentication... oh bother, I'm just ranting now.

anyway, please let me know if I can opt out. (I'm betting not.)

color me frustrated and shopping for a new online-bank, thank you very much!

Wade -out.


--- End of Rant - I admit I made a few small edits on this read through, but that was the gist of it. ---


To sleep I go, I'm sure a few hours of shut eye will cure my ill temperament.

Wade -out.