I’m going bonkers with the gabajillion usernames and passwords and access codes, corresponding security questions for each application and all the other alpha-numeric-symbol combinations that have been lately swarming my life.
I’m not kidding. Everyday, there are a million numbers and names that I must remember on the drop of a dime and I find that I no longer have the capability nor the time to remember any of my own personal set of codes. Are you following my line of ranting yet? Here, let me take you through a typical day.
6:30 a.m. – Wake up, lean over and check my blackberry. Type in password to get into phone.
7:30 a.m. – Type password to log onto User office desktop computer.
7:35 a.m. - Type username & password to log onto Quickbooks
7:45 a.m. – Type username & password to log onto Office Network/Server
7:47 a.m. – Customer walks in. Name, name…WHAT was his name again? “Oh, Good Morning, Mr. Redbook. Is the Ranger already due for service?”
8:00 a.m. – Check online bank accounts (log on with yet another user name, answer corresponding security question, confirm security picture and type in password). And to make matters worse, these passwords must be changed every 30 days. Ugh.
8:30 a.m. – Repeat with 2 other accounts & also confirm with corresponding credit card account that also has its own password and username.
Are we wigging out yet, folks? And recently, I opened a new personal account to apply for a car loan. On top of the two pins for the ATM card and Check Card, I also have to memorize the account numbers itself and make a “strong enough” alpha-numeric-symbol password and username to access my account online. All on top, of course, the 10 personal questions they ask in case (by some really off chance) that you forget your password. I’m tempted to only remember the answers to these questions if it weren’t for the fact that it only leads to having to memorize a newly “reset” password and user name. Then, while trying to check the status of my application over the phone, I was told by an automated recording that in order to transfer money from my checking to saving or vise versa, I had to devise yet another PIN for phone transactions.
Then there’s the user name and passwords for all the online applications I log onto daily…like…ahem…WordPress or Flickr or MySpace. The list goes on and on and on….
I appreciate the safety measures put into place to stave away the would-be burglars from stealing my identity…but I mean…I almost respect these thieves for keeping up with the ever changing codes! Almost.
I’m reminded of a “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” episode where Phillip Banks and his daugher Ashley are searching their home for their missing house key. Their other daughter, Hilary, comments that she always makes multiple copies of their house key because she always loses it. But with the multiple copies, she’d always have a spare! So when Ashley tires of looking for the key, she recommends that they just drive around town and track down one of Hilary’s lost keys!
Ingenious! I say we quit memorizing all the passwords and user names that these robbers have forced us to utilize and…well…just ask them for it!
