Major Financial Institutions and Passwords
I routinely change my passwords every few months on all my financial providers that I do online business with. The goal is to pick a secure password that is 8 characters in length, has mixed-case alpha-numeric numbers and at least 2 special characters.
An example of a good password would be: “Foo)B4r!”
Part of the problem was […]
I routinely change my passwords every few months on all my financial providers that I do online business with. The goal is to pick a secure password that is 8 characters in length, has mixed-case alpha-numeric numbers and at least 2 special characters.
An example of a good password would be: “Foo)B4r!”
Part of the problem was when I recently installed Quicken 2005 Premier. The software would only let me send a 6-digit PIN to one of my banks, whereas the bank itself allowed for an alpha-numeric (letters and digits) password. It took me awhile to figure out why I couldn’t download the transactions into Quicken 2005 Premier (complain to Intuit).
The password forced on me by more than one of the companies I do business with consists of something as stupid as a 6-digit password (no letters or special characters). One could crack the account with a script if they know the username. All you’d have to do is write an iteration loop:
while ($i < 999999) {
tryLogin();
$i++;
}
What I’m saying is that this is a very stupid rule - it leads to people using insecure passwords, like their phone number, or birthday.
Frankly, I’m quite disturbed at the lax password policies I’m finding with most of the financial institutions I use. 4 out of 5 of my providers do NOT allow for a secure password.
PayPal is the only site I’ve come across that allows for a secure password as described above.
I encourage you to send a quick email (feel free to copy and paste this blog posting) to your financial services institution in an effort to lobby them so they will implement more secure passwords. Simply go to their home page, and click on their “Contact Us” link (almost all banks and brokerages have this on the home page). Wouldn’t take more than 2 minutes, and if everybody does it, we will see some changes!
Below is a list of all the financial institutions I could think of (if you know of any others, feel free to post their contact info in the comments section):
Bank of America:
1.800.792.0808
email
Patelco Credit Union:
support@patelco.org
415.442.6200 or 1.800.358.8228 (toll-free, nationwide)
Ameritrade:
(click on New Accounts)
U.S. Phone: 800-669-3900
International Phone:
City Code: 402
Number: 970-5805
Canadian Phone: 866-328-3522 or 416-363-9045
Merrill Lynch:
Site Feedback
US: General Inquiries 1-800-MERRILL (637-7455)
Wells Fargo:
Online Banking and Bill Pay:
1-800-956-4442
Email
Schwabb Plan:
Contact Us page
1-800-724-7526
Schwabb:
Email
1-866-855-9102
E*Trade:
Call 1-800-ETRADE-1 (1-800-387-2331)
From outside the U.S., call +1-916-636-2510
Email is only available to customers
Washington Mutual:
I would CC everybody on this page
Personal Banking Customer Service: 800.788.7000
Home Loan Customer Service: 866.926.8937
Tech Credit Union:
Email Form
408-451-9111 or 800-553-0880
