April 1, 2004

Congrats, Saalon! Everyone, go read Daemonsong.

Does anyone else find that the amount of verification required on most banking sites is rather too much to deal with? Why does the bank insist that I enter the city I live in when registering? Isn’t that in their records? And, really, if I’m spoofing somebody else’s identity and already have their street address, I probably have their city name too.

I’m all for privacy and ensuring that the right person is logging in. But at some point I have difficulty caring.

Part of the problem, actually, is that my needs for online banking are simple: I want to be able to see my account history. I don’t want complicated registration/login procedures for that. I don’t care if m0nk3yb()y in Topeka can figure out a way to see the size of my last paycheck deposit.

Perhaps some gradation in login would work. Imagine registering on your bank’s website and getting a form: “How would you like to register? You can register for a basic online account, which is simple and lets you see your information only. Or you can register for a full online account, which requires more verification and lets you do practically anything with your account.”

I dunno. I’m just frustrated because I can’t access any of my credit cards or banks online due to overly complicated verification systems.

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