Nutty online banking security stuff

[firecat]

I have a mortgage and I pay it online. When I log into the account, this is what usually happens:

1. They demand that I change my password to something different from what it was before. So I do it. I believe that the strongest passwords include letters, numbers, and symbols. So I enter a password like that. Then they tell me I can't use any symbols. So I have to redo it to something less secure.

I have a program that stores all my passwords now, but before I had that, I had trouble remembering what password I was using for this site (because I constantly had to change it and couldn't use symbols) and I kept having to call them up and get them to reset the account.

2. They demand that I answer a "security question" that I previously set up.

3. When I confirm my payment, they demand that I enter the last 4 digits of my social security number.

This seems ridiculous, especially since a mortgage account ONLY INVOLVES MY GIVING THEM MONEY. I can see reasons for using multi-factor security to protect checking accounts and credit accounts, but I can't think of any reason for someone to hack into a mortgage account.

Comments

[wild_irises]

Juan Ladwig (elisem's mammal)is a security geek, and a very smart one. He advised me some time ago to pay bills electronically from one account as opposed to through many accounts, so that's what I do. My online bank has some of the safeguards you're talking about (picture and passphrase as well as password), but nothing like the number of hoops. That would drive me crazy.

[firecat]

Good to know, thanks!