Comments on: Online Banking and Contingency Plans

By: Toby

Toby — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 10:45:46 +0000

Passwords made of random letters and numbers might be secure, but are impossible to remember. It’s been shown that just stringing two words together is both secure AND memorable.

By: Luke G.

Luke G. — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:52:46 +0000

I’m a fan of LastPass as a password manager. KeePass was mentioned, but I like the fact that I get the stored passwords on basically any device I have at home and work and wherever else without any hoop-jumping that KeePass required when I last looked at it.

Just my $0.02!

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 21:53:02 +0000

Have your credit reports blocked by the three agencies, Experion, Trans Union and I forget the name of the third. Depending upon your age and your state, this is free or costs about $15. If you’re the victim of identity theft it is free. Your identity can’t be stolen, and you can’t casually apply for a credit card or loan you don’t need as you need to submit your pin number to have credit reports unfrozen. Great, free or dirt cheap protection. Plus the credit reporting agencies hate it because they earn money dispensing your personal information to anyone who pays them for it.

By: littlepitcher

littlepitcher — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:07:43 +0000

You can do it all, and some creep will still find a loophole. An old acquaintance just discovered that some malicious soul had put up a scurrilous, if not slanderous, LinkedIn page in my name, with my real e-mail address (seriously, does a contract cleaner really need a LinkedIn page?) and had it blocked for me. Now I have to worry about similar adult-on-adult cyberbullying and identity theft on other social web sites where I have elected not to participate, and about repercussions if and when I have to seek more contract work.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:47:40 +0000

I purchased an identity theft rider for my homeowner’s policy. Identity theft can still occur in spite of safety precausions. If it does, my insurance company deals with the entire, time-consuming mess. If my house should be lost in a fire, I don’t plan to re-build it myself. I look at identity theft protection the same way. And it’s cheap, about $25 bucks a year.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:57:44 +0000

I read an article once that suggested you think of a phrase that reminds you of your bank (or wherever you need the password), break it down to the first letters, so if my phrase was, “Wells Fargo Is My Bank”, it would end up being, wfimb, then add a number 4-6 character that you can remember, maybe 1995, and add that to the string of letters, making it wfimb1995. Then as a final protection, hit “shift” when you type in the first 2 characters and the last 2 characters, making your password, WFisb19(%. To you it makes sense, and is fairly easy to remember (especially when you are typing it in every few days or so), but it’s really difficult to break. I tend to forget passwords that come from a random generator, and I don’t like to keep things written down anyway accessible. So this works for me! Obviously, you want to use a different password for each institution, but the method is the same!

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:27:00 +0000

Account Information – I’d add a customer service number, email address or snail mail address if the surviving spouse isn’t a computer user. They’ll probably also need info on your “secret questions” & answers.

If a safe deposit box at the bank is shared or in the deceased’s name, the survivor isn’t going to be able to access it until the estate is probated or settled. One solution, if that’s the way to go, is to have separate boxes & store your spouse’s info in yours & vice versa.