Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

I just saw a TV commercial with the guy who is in charge of making ATM transactions faster for Bank of America. He says they've shaved seconds off of transaction time.

Well not here in New England. When they switched from Fleet to Bank of America software on thier ATMs, they did away with FAST CASH. With FAST CASH you used to be able to set a pre-set withdrawal amount and then after keying in your ATM Password, you could prss FAST CASH button and your cash, card and reciept would pop right out, and you transaction would be done.

Now, you've got to log in, select withdrawal, press OTHER AMOUNT, key in your amount, press ok, then tell them you don't want any more transactions. It adds about 8 more keystrokes and quite a few more seconds to the transaction.

I wish Bank of America would read Naked Conversations and know that there's good feedback sitting here in this blog. ;-)

I got overpaid a few months back; the amount was too big to take out of my next few months' salary, so I went to the payroll office with my debit card. All kinds of validation were required, rather to my surprise (I'm giving them money and they want me to validate myself?), beginning with me calling out my birth date across the office and culminating in a request for the third letter of my secret word. Now, I had (and have) no recollection of ever setting up a 'secret word' on that debit card, or that bank account. I tried the third letter of the password I used for online banking, but no dice. Stalemate - until the call centre person eventually said to the payroll person, "it might be his mother's maiden name". Fortunately it was (at least, the third letter matched).

It's a curious thing to have to keep secret. There have been times before now, in conversations online, when I've wanted to say "I'm only Welsh on my father's side - my mother was a $MOTHERS_MAIDEN_NAME" and had to stop myself. It's the genealogists I really feel sorry for.

I am amazed at how many institutions (mainly financial) use mothers maiden name as an identification token.

But in my mind the other secret word (or at least second is) date of birth. Heaps of places (at least here in Australia) also use this to identify the user.

What's scary .. a colleague of mine, left his passport in the hotel on the way to the airport. Note that this was in the USA. The airline called the Australian emabassy to check if he was who he said, the embassy actually identified by birth cerfiticate details .. Mothers Maiden name ! How's that.

I have been saying "Smith" when asked for my mother's maiden name for years now. It just always bugged me to be asked for more and more personal info, so I lie.

A place where I sometimes get my hair cut always wants my phone number. I'm in their records with a phone number I used a decade ago and as long as I can remember it, it works.

I think it was a Costco that asked me for my phone number at checkout, and I just said no. I said, can I just give you cash and buy the product? They didn't like it, but they let me give them money and walk out of the store with a purchase. It's not like I was buying ammo or fertilizer or something.

David

Regarding Mothers Maiden Names, when I was still banking at Fleet before I became a Bank of America customer, the customer rep (she was hispanic) thought I was joking when I gave her my mother's real maiden name. She had a hard time believing that a 'white' guy like me could have a mother with a 'spanish' name.

Take care

Serge
Biz:
http://www.njconcierges.com
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Serge, ... Some people!

You've given me an idea though. I don't know why I picked Smith (my post above) - probably at the time I picked something in a hurry and thought that would be easy to remember. I have "Smith" on several accounts now.

Next time someone asks I'll be more creative. We should pick names that are more fun - like maybe Rockefeller or how 'bout Gandhi? What else would be good? :)