Speaking of redundancies

I'm with the Royal Bank, and this does not happen to me.

I do input my client card number, year of birth, or last 4 digits of my phone number, and then they get right down to it when they talk to me.

You must not be with the Royal, huh?

It varies from company to company. A lot depends on the CRM software they use. Good systems display all that data to the operator who takes the call. The most modern ones call up your records automatically whan the call is transferred.

You have to remember that Mame and myself reside in Canada. Rules are a wee bit different here than down in the US in regards to banking.

The questions asked are to identify the caller accurately and for security reasons.

For myself, I'm glad that they are asked, because there's too much identity theft going on these days.

Perhaps so. However banks here face the same issue in establishing identity, though there may well be some differences in specific rules. Almost all use some software system to support the operators doing the customer interface. Good systems retain the customer imput data and provide it to the operator taking the call: bad (or old) ones don't. Computers and telephony systems work the same everywhere.

Its all about security mame.
you should be greatful for the banks efforts to safeguard your accounts.

Hey, what are you complaining - in the United States if you don't know your
mother's maiden name you're not having a bank account, period (joking),
but it all falls or continues with your mother's maiden name. They always ask
for that.

Yes, what an odd security device. I've always thought that if I ever want to lead a life of crime, I would attack there. My strategy would involve the fact that Johnson is the most common surname, and that it wouldn't take long for me to find a maiden Johnson.

I hear ya! I rang through Xmas waited for 6mins to get a reply, had to hit a button after going through 7, hit another 3 buttons only to find they were on limited hours, only available between 9am and 4pm and that was at 9.30am????

I think you're all missing the point - the point is NOT about security - I get that and I appreciate it... the point is having to input all that info numerically only to have an eventual voice ask for the SAME information.

Why is that???

Good questions, and I've often wondered. Credit card companies seem to have that problem. L.L. Bean knows who I am and my shipping and billing address without having to ask.

As I said earlier, you're with the wrong bank. I don't get that with the Royal.

You don't? wow. What about credit card companies? I seem to get that with every one of them.

I'm also with Royal Bank Visa (I do all my banking with them), so ditto to my previous comment as well.