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Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret

nytimes.com

131–140 of 274 posts

Re: Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I'm sure you can get them somehow, I'm just saying that they're so rare that no bank gives them out by default (nor have I ever seen one or know what to do with it).

Is there still a universal system of acceptance of checks, though, like there was Eurocheques before 2001? Any bank can presumably issue checks, but if no car dealerships take them...?

Banks still take them. I remember shops in my area starting to refuse them about 2000.

Re: Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia may not be known as a banking superpower but it has the most user-friendly, affordable, efficient financial infrastructure of all the places I lived in. There's the most kickass Bill Pay system ever and DEFT, which allows paying by several methods including the credit card, potentially gaining reward points for paying rent. (Reward credit cards may be pricey though.) Overseas wire cost a measly flat AU$20 a…

> Nobody uses cheques, obviously (although they do exist). Cheques are now mainly used for business to consumer payments, and for large value transactions, where it's done as a bank-drawn cheque usually. The bank I use doesn't have a branch anywhere near where I live, so when I got sent a cheque a while ago I had to ask how to go about depositing it. Turns out the bank I use for my credit card will happily accept the…

> Cheques are now mainly used for business to consumer payments,

I vaguely remember a couple of times years ago (late 2000s, I think) I had a cheque sent to me, but it was done electronically in most cases. Point taken though.

> and for large value transactions, where it's done as a bank-drawn cheque usually.

True, but a bank cheque is a different thing altogether.

Re: Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret

#135
post #4

Does anyone know the cause of the large and long standing difference in banking in US vs Europe? In europe: -for 15 or so years already, web banking has been with 2nd factor authentication (since its inception I assume). In previous decades we would get devices where you need to type numbers from its lcd screen into the webpage login. Today mobile auth apps are taking over. -I have never seen a bank have security que…

> -"wiring" money between european bank accounts is free (and not called wiring, not sure what in english though), for as long as I remember. It's not some special type of transaction, it's the main way to pay bills, get salary, pay each other, ...

Many business accounts in Europe do charge per transaction however

Re: Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret

#136
post #86
post #3

Every time I'm confronted with these types of questions I just roll my eyes and add a 'Mothers maiden name' text entry to my password manager with a 16 digit random string.

I go out of my way to come up with particularly ridiculous answers to these questions in cases where I know someone might eventually want me to answer them over the phone. Birth city: Octopus Mainframe Z7X

In the same vein, I always draw a stick-figure horse when I have to sign for deliveries at work.

Re: Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret

#137
post #3

Every time I'm confronted with these types of questions I just roll my eyes and add a 'Mothers maiden name' text entry to my password manager with a 16 digit random string.

OT: Just wondering why so many people are using password managers. When you use a password manager you have one single point of attack and failure. I wouldn't like to give all my credentials to one single entity.

Re: Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret

#139
post #4

Does anyone know the cause of the large and long standing difference in banking in US vs Europe? In europe: -for 15 or so years already, web banking has been with 2nd factor authentication (since its inception I assume). In previous decades we would get devices where you need to type numbers from its lcd screen into the webpage login. Today mobile auth apps are taking over. -I have never seen a bank have security que…

- We don't use 2FA authentication, I guess because there are more cost effective ways of verifying our identity (probably not going to last much longer with all the breaches) - ACH in the USA is free and fast (one business day)... and that's the main way of receiving salary, paying bills, etc. Is Europe really any better in this regard? - No one uses paper checks here either...

People still uses paper checks all the time here in the US. Maybe not for small things but...

- Rent payments to independent land lords are generally via a mailed check. - Some monthly bill payments aren't doable online. - Transferring money to people. - Large purchases.

Re: Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret

#140
post #3

Every time I'm confronted with these types of questions I just roll my eyes and add a 'Mothers maiden name' text entry to my password manager with a 16 digit random string.

OT: Just wondering why so many people are using password managers. When you use a password manager you have one single point of attack and failure. I wouldn't like to give all my credentials to one single entity.

The password manager is typically on a machine you control. If your machine is owned, you've got issues regardless. A password manager provides a way to effectively utilize higher-entropy, per-account passwords. As with all security-related matters, it's a tradeoff. I expect many choose password managers for this reason.
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