Trust me, I am him!

Once again I am incredibly impressed by how technology has vastly improved some services!

Take online security for instance. I know I have mentioned it before, but it is so amazing how secure I feel about things now that I just HAD to share again!

My father has an account in a local bank that is solely in his name. Since these days he is lucky he actually remembers his name, this account has fallen under my purview as did so many other of his financial obligations in the last few years. My mother has taken over managing most of the finances now that they have been straightened out, but since she does not have a deep manly voice, and the paperwork involved with proving Power of Attorney is hers is frankly a pain in the arse, I usually do any communications with this bank, pretending I am my father.

Sounding secure huh?

To aid my mother in keeping track of things, I set up Quicken for her, which theoretically goes right to all the banks and gets their info directly. Then all she has to do is verify that the money going in and out is going where it should be going. You know, that balancing thang.

Quicken seemed to have issues with this particular bank.

Which doesn’t surprise me, because their online security is so secure that even the person who set up the password and security questions can’t get into it. And to ensure things are more secure, you basically have to have a separate password and security questions for each feature you use on the website. Want to pay some bills? Log into a different site. Want to be all ecological and keep your statements online? Log into yet another site!

With all these separate companies guarding my dad’s money from ne’er-do-wells, how could we not feel secure?

So Quicken finally managed to connect with the bank and update things. Immediately we noticed an oddity back in September of last year, so we wanted to go view the statement for that month. This was when I found out that the statements are actually a separate site from the bank itself and that apparently there is a different login. I did set it up a while back, but I thought I had used the same info to keep it easy.

Silly me.

Once I realized I forgot the password, I was given the opportunity to reset the password. Of course there were three security questions to answer to prove I am my dad (which I set up). They were supposedly easy questions this time. And yet I still managed to forget the answers. So after several attempts at the likely answers, I am now locked out from viewing the account STATEMENTS (though I can view the actual account and even access the money in it). But not to worry. There is an 800 number to call to get it all straightened out.

I gather the necessary info together that I am likely to need to prove I am my dad, call the number, and a very nice and helpful lady asked me two simple questions: "What is your name? What is your account number?" That was it.

"No problem. I will email you a new password."

I am starting to rethink the whole mattress idea!