How many current accounts do you have?
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As a supplementary question; how many passwords, passcodes, PINs, significant dates, significant places, memorable names, security questions and other mnemonics do you have across all your accounts for online, app and telephone banking?
At last count, I had about 40 across three banks and 3 credit cards; 14 for one financial provider alone!
As an early adopter, I initially went for a simple approach, with three or four permutations of the same password and numbers. I then found, as they upped the complexity of their security, that I was having to use longer passcodes, often including Upper and Lower Case, one, two three or more numerals and punctuation symbols.
The geeks who invent the security questions really seem to think I might recall
- the name of my first school (which I attended for 2 months 67 years ago),
- first pet (a feral cat without a name),
- first phone number including dialling code (only rich people had phones in the 1940s and 50s and we only adopted STD numerical dialling codes in the 60's )
- favourite Boy Band as a child (almost 20 years before the Beatles?
- First record purchased (do Pianola rolls count?).
Even my first address is a challenge (we had about 30 by the time I was aged 6 starting with a caravan in a field somewhere in Sussex?).
An alternative approach, belatedly suggested to me by a friend, was to use the same reply to absolutely every question;
- Mother's Maiden Name? Bananas 123:*!
- First School? Bananas 123:*!
- Birthplace? Bananas 123:*!
- First Pet? Bananas 123:*!
(Oh drat- now I've revealed the passcode to my Swiss Bank Account!)
Roll on dementia; as then I can give the granddaughter Enduring POA so it won't be my problem. Anyway, meanwhile- can anyone beat 40?0 -
Alexmac you have brought a smile to my face.
I'm a few years younger than you (only a few) and have no problem remembering the answers to the security questions you've listed but am guilty of using the same or similar passwords across multiple accounts:eek:
I tend to use apps on my phone for day to day stuff, as they usually need only one or 2 bits of info, or my fingerprint - which I always manage to have with me:D
Everything is on a password protected spreadsheet on an encrypted USB, which is also password protected, so as long as I can remember those, I'm ok.
One of the better suggestions for password composition I've seen, is to take the initial letters of a memorable phrase or song, change a couple of them to numbers eg s to 5, i to 1 etc. Then you add something relevant to the account, such as S for Santander, YB for Yorkshire Bank etc.
Of course you have to remember the phrase, and please don't use "1galb0cYB" or you'll be into my account, but that's ok as there's probably more in your Swiss account:rotfl::rotfl: .0 -
LoL, you people really have 13 or 15 or even 20 current accounts? Is that true? I can't believe it :-)
I would like to have between 4 and 6. I think that's the maximum that I would be able to manage effectively. Actually, I would be happy with 3, but I need more so I can switch them elsewhere if I find some new good switching incentive.
How do you manage all those accounts? How does it affect your credit rating?0 -
Today I spoke with girl who works in a bank. She told me that she wouldn't recommend me to have more than 2-3 current accounts.
I asked her if it's OK to send money between my own current accounts just to meet the requirement of "pay in at least ... per month" that many current accounts have in order to earn interest. She said that this may be a problem and after some time, the bank might start tracking where the money comes from and they could even close the account? Huh? Is that true?0 -
Asking in a bank, you have really deserved the answer you gotSlovakianGuy wrote: »I asked her if it's OK to send money between my own current accounts just to meet the requirement of "pay in at least ... per month" that many current accounts have in order to earn interest. She said that this may be a problem and after some time, the bank might start tracking where the money comes from and they could even close the account? Huh? Is that true?
Reality is that you can have as many accounts, and move your money between them, as you wish. It is your money, after all, not the bank's or anyone else's. If you ever did get investigated, you can show that it is your money, so there is no problem, is there.0 -
Are you suggesting people are lying?SlovakianGuy wrote: »LoL, you people really have 13 or 15 or even 20 current accounts? Is that true? I can't believe it :-)
Have as many or as few as you feel happy with, and the banks let you have. It isn't a competition, and there are no prizes for having the most.SlovakianGuy wrote: »I would like to have between 4 and 6. I think that's the maximum that I would be able to manage effectively. Actually, I would be happy with 3, but I need more so I can switch them elsewhere if I find some new good switching incentive.
I track mine with a personal finance manager called AceMoney but there are others, like MS Money, and even a spreadsheet or pen and paper will suffice. Just so long as you have a complete record of all accounts and all movements between them, incl those planned in the future.SlovakianGuy wrote: »How do you manage all those accounts?
It doesn't, as long as you don't end up with overdrafts, especially unarranged ones.SlovakianGuy wrote: »How does it affect your credit rating?0 -
Can we have a number of current accounts? Like 5 current account in different bank?
This is because when I go lloyds open a current account, they asked me you already have Barclays, Halifax, Nationwide, why need so many current account.
Is UK law does not allow open multiple current account?0 -
OK, thanks. Btw, I didn't ask directly in a bank, just asked a girl who works in a bank
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Are you suggesting people are lying?
No, just that I can't believe it
Regarding the credit score, I think the application for a new bank account lowers the score a bit as they perform 'hard search' every time. Right? And, as far as I know, several hard searches in relatively short period of time always adversely affect credit score/rating.0 -
I have 4 - Halifax as my main account, Nationwide Flexplus joint account, Natwest for switching bonus and Barclays as it was a joint account with my Mum and I kept it when she died.0
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