Trish has a three year fixed interest account at a Building Society which matures shortly. She's already given instructions for the balance to be transferred to our current account as we plan to reinvest it elsewhere, which the Building Society has confirmed they've received. Today she rang them to ask how soon after the maturity date the transfer would be completed.
They asked for the account number. Which she gave them.
Then they asked two security questions. Do we have any other accounts at the branch and did we open the account in branch or on line. She didn't know the first as I handle most of our money stuff and couldn't remember the second. So she had to ask me. So they refused to answer her query on security grounds.
So five minutes later I rang and said I had a general query about their accounts and asked the same question. They told me it would be the next working day.
So what would have been the security issue in giving her that answer?
It drives me mad. It's the same thing with our bank and credit card company, you almost feel like asking if they'd like a DNA test and finger prints. I remember once, in a rage of frustration giving them a piece of my mind and slamming the phone down because of all their security questions and passwords they wanted before answering what was a simple question, and that's after you've jumped through hoops pressing this and that button trying to get through to a human being. Yes, I know security is needed, and rightly so, but it's getting out of hand in my opinion.
Now look what you've done Merv, gone and upped my blood pressure I bet.
That's okay Stephen. Tell me your mother's maiden name, your address 25 years ago, your inside leg measurement and the sexual preference of your first teacher and it'll be okay.
Yes, we need security but I sometimes wonder whose money it is.
I once had a similar problem with Vodafone. I couldn't get a signal at home and rang to ask if there was a technical problem with the local cell. They made me jump through security hoops before telling me there were no problems. Four days later when I still couldn't get a signal and after putting me through the same obstacle course they admitted there was a problem. 24 hours later I was an O2 customer.
I like it when they ask stupid security questions when you are trying to pay your bill over the phone. Feel like saying, if anyone phones wanting to pay my bills or put money in my account please let them I am quite happy with that.
I find Halifax the most unhelpful bank, I just received a maturity letter for a 3 yr fixed rate ISA.
It cotains 3 pages on how to re-invest with Halifax, one brief para on what you need to do if you want to switch, and nothing about how to withdraw your funds.
The on-line info only provides a method for staying with Halifax, and tells you to discuss with your new bank if you want to switch, and still no way to withdraw.
So I phoned and after about 10 mins of listening to ever more meaningless options, and further frustration as the robot system tried to seek out forgotten security data, I was connected to a real live person. She could arrange this over the phone but would need to set up extra security to enable it. At this point, after remembering a similar incident last year, I asked her if when my ISA matured and the money was transferred into an easy access cash ISA paying a wonderful 0.25%, would I be able to transfer the money to my HSBC account using the on-line system, yes came the reply, about 30 seconds of useful dialogue in a phone call taking about 15 mins.
If anyone thinks I should keep my money in an ISA I suggest they check interest rates and the new taxation rules starting in April.
I fully understand all this business of asking security questions - but then I am reticent to answer the questions on the grounds that someone else then has information which I don't wish to give (just in case they use it fraudulently to access my accounts). However, recently we were ringing a bank about something, and they asked a question which we'd never knowingly had as a security question! QED we didn't know the answer, couldn't give the answer and so that was that! We explained that this was not one of our security questions - and that most certainly didn't help!
We rang again five minutes later, got the usual normal questions, answered them and got 'into' our account!
That's okay Stephen. Tell me your mother's maiden name, your address 25 years ago, your inside leg measurement and the sexual preference of your first teacher and it'll be okay.
Yes, we need security but I sometimes wonder whose money it is.
I once had a similar problem with Vodafone. I couldn't get a signal at home and rang to ask if there was a technical problem with the local cell. They made me jump through security hoops before telling me there were no problems. Four days later when I still couldn't get a signal and after putting me through the same obstacle course they admitted there was a problem. 24 hours later I was an O2 customer.
I had the same problem with Virgin Broadband when the internet connection went down, I phoned customer services to ask why the service was not available and was asked the same security questions. My exact answer was " I am not asking for confidential details about the account, I am not trying to change the service plan, I just want to know why the b****y thing isn't working"
Cheryl had a term related savings account that matured in early January and as the account was to be converted on maturity to an ordinary savings account earning 0.FA% we wanted to transfer it into a new account but when she went online to switch it over the password she used was not recognised. After several phone calls to the internet banking customer services helpline without any success we went into town to the bank branch, the manager took us into a room and after being interrogated to MI5 standards he got into her account and suggested that she change all her password and memorable information there and then.
Back home she tried to log in with the new security details and guess what ? details not recognised, I phoned the banks head office and was told to put Cheryl on the phone and they asked for the security pin, I grabbed the phone and said that we want to close her account and transfer all the balance to our joint current account and we are considering closing all our accounts with that bank as I have had enough.
Within a couple of minutes the entire balance was transferred into our joint account with no pin or password mentioned in the conversation, some security eh!.
I recently had a spam email from Age UK inviting me to gamble, something I had strong moral objections to, and when I asked them (more than once) where they got my details from, they said EOn, who provide my power. I emailed them to complain and someone phoned me to talk about it. She said that, before she could continue, she'd have to ask me some security questions. I refused to answer, saying how could I be sure that it was actually EOn who were phoning? She didn't like that and said she'd respond via email instead.
I recently had a spam email from Age UK inviting me to gamble, something I had strong moral objections to, and when I asked them (more than once) where they got my details from, they said EOn, who provide my power. I emailed them to complain and someone phoned me to talk about it. She said that, before she could continue, she'd have to ask me some security questions. I refused to answer, saying how could I be sure that it was actually EOn who were phoning? She didn't like that and said she'd respond via email instead.
You should have asked the woman from Eon some security questions !!
I recently had a spam email from Age UK inviting me to gamble, something I had strong moral objections to, and when I asked them (more than once) where they got my details from, they said EOn, who provide my power. I emailed them to complain and someone phoned me to talk about it. She said that, before she could continue, she'd have to ask me some security questions. I refused to answer, saying how could I be sure that it was actually EOn who were phoning? She didn't like that and said she'd respond via email instead.
You should have asked the woman from Eon some security questions !!
I used to work for a bank, and giving out personal information to a person who is not the customer is obviously a big no no.
When I phoned a customer, I had to make sure I had the customer on the phone. Even though I had called the customer, on the number that was stored in the bank's records, I had to be sure it wasn't customer's son, or the plumber or a neighbour who had come in to water the plants.
I often had the issue with people saying how do I know that it's really the bank.
It was no skin off my nose - I'd just say I'd put notes on the file, then they could ring the call centre, and some operative in Halifax or Leeds could gather the information.
Curiously, at this point, they all decided it was safe to answer the security questions. I suppose the thought of ringing a call centre and speaking to someone who knew little about mortgages was a worse prospect than answering a couple of questions to confirm who they were.
If a customer wanted generic info, like how long will it take for a cheque to clear, or when will a funds transfer be available, I'd just tell them - it's all info in the public domain, it's not personal to the individual.
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