When did you open your current account? Security question

samwsmith1

I once got asked this question with Nationwide, but I could remember as I'd only had it for around a month.

I find FDs security procedure good, they have set questions which are setup when you first call up. They always ask for parts of your password, but the others can be different other things.

ChiefGrasscutter

If I was writing a computer program to analyse pass/fail on the answers I'd set the criterion such that as the date gets earlier (and hence more subject to errors by the customer in being correct) I'd make it such that it does not need to be so accurate to pass.
So for instance if someone gave the answer as long ago as the 1970's (yup that would be me!) I'd set it so if the answer given was any date between 1970 and 1979 it was deemed correct.

Ususally these systems are set so that they ask you multiple unconnected questions - and you are expected/allowed to get some wrong! at the end the computer gives the staff member the yes/no overall reply.
In this way the staff member never gets to know whether any of the answers to the individual questions were correct or not and hence your data is secure from being potentially taken and used by a staff member. Sad to say banks now have to assume staff members can be 'bought'.

bobblebob

What you meant to do when ringing the bank from abroad then? I always have my online banking screen open when i ring so can answer anything they ask (apart from the account opening), but abroad i probably wouldnt.

Ben8282

I have never been asked this particular security question by anybody.

Also my bank doesn't know when I opened my current account. It was 1983 but, in a different context, they told me it was 1987!

samwsmith1

bobblebob wrote: »

What you meant to do when ringing the bank from abroad then? I always have my online banking screen open when i ring so can answer anything they ask (apart from the account opening), but abroad i probably wouldnt.

I'm surprised it doesn't log you out of online banking when you start security.
At least FD do this as I questioned it when on the phone and was told that it was to ensure that someone else couldn't be checking your account.

bobblebob

Yea ive wondered sometimes that security questions are pointless if someone has access to your online banking. Ive even told the bank im log into online banking while answering the questions and they didnt say anything

Guess there has to be that level though of security and also convenience for the customer

nearlyrich

I know when I opened my current account 20 years ago today as it goes!

glider3560

bobblebob wrote: »

One thing i didnt know until today is when they ask these questions, the person on the other end doesnt know the correct answer. They just input your answer into the computer, and that tells them if you passed or not.

I always thought the computer tells them what to ask, but it was the staff member who decided if it was correct or not

When I worked in insurance (two different companies), we had to choose the questions ourselves.

Customer would give me policy number, I would enter it and see all the customer details. At both companies I had a list of questions that I could ask and had to ask at least three, one from list A, one from list B and the other from either list.

I always used my common sense and wouldn't ask things that the customer would be unlikely to know. For example I wouldn't ask "how many years have you been with us" when someone has been a customer for 30 years. Something like "what other policies do you hold with us" would be more appropriate.