# Fuck you Capital One security questions **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 30, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059 "2015-09-30T17:52:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/1 "2015-09-30T17:52:07Z")
I am sick of playing phone fucking games being transferred from one fuck to the other by this company. All because I created online access and it took me months to get the physical card, so by the time the card was in my hand the password was forgotten. So now to change the password I have to answer security questions created from public records that don’t make sense, what is your home town newspaper. I google and try em all nope, I try the newspapers for the address I first got credit at nope, I try the current billing address that is just a mail relay and nope. They can reset it to different questions I also cannot answer, yippie! The real answer doesn’t work, all possible alternates don’t work. I asked where are you pulling these from? Oh an outside company from public records, I’m like well not sure what public records but if I knew maybe I could figure it out? No they won’t waive the questions, and it is bizarre I can’t answer them since it is from my public record. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/2 "2015-09-30T17:59:49Z")
Your subject line has two extra words on the end. CapOne sucks harder than Little Vinny’s Loan Shark Shop. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/3 "2015-09-30T18:13:55Z")
The thing that gets me is the pointless jerking around. Oh ok for that issue you need to speak to our security confirmation department. 10 minutes later of explaining issue. Oh we don’t handle the online stuff, you need the online electronic account access department I’ll transfer you. Repeat, thats after you get through the automated phone menu and past the first human gate keeper. ---
**Author:** ![desertmonk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@desertmonk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/desertmonk)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/4 "2015-09-30T18:21:40Z")
If I put the account number into my bank’s website it will take me to take challenge questions that cannot be answered correctly. Maybe something like that is happening here? ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/5 "2015-09-30T18:54:49Z")
I use Capital One, and some of these security questions are deliberately misleading, that’s kind of the point. As an example, say one of them was “select the town you were born” and it gives some possible answers, and sometimes the correct answer isn’t listed, so I selected “not listed”. That was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out what my last deposit was, since I didn’t know that off the top of my head and couldn’t check online since I was still setting it up, but I was able to get someone on the phone and prove my identity through answering the security questions and giving some other info and they gave me that so I could finish setting it up. From my personal experience with it, none of the process was difficult or seemed unreasonable to me. I’ve always received good service from them, but if you’re still getting jerked around, just go into a branch. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/6 "2015-09-30T18:57:18Z")
> [@desertmonk](#): > > If I put the account number into my bank’s website it will take me to take challenge questions that cannot be answered correctly. Maybe something like that is happening here? YES! That is exactly my problem, I want online access but the questions cannot be answered. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/7 "2015-09-30T18:59:44Z")
I had someone from BoA try to get me to name my sister-in-law’s birth date so I could open an account. I have no idea who they think knows the answers to these questions. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/8 "2015-09-30T19:00:06Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > I use Capital One, and some of these security questions are deliberately misleading, that’s kind of the point. As an example, say one of them was “select the town you were born” and it gives some possible answers, and sometimes the correct answer isn’t listed, so I selected “not listed”. That was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out what my last deposit was, since I didn’t know that off the top of my head and couldn’t check online since I was still setting it up, but I was able to get someone on the phone and prove my identity through answering the security questions and giving some other info and they gave me that so I could finish setting it up. > > From my personal experience with it, none of the process was difficult or seemed unreasonable to me. I’ve always received good service from them, but if you’re still getting jerked around, just go into a branch. There is no drop down menu, just a space for you to type the answer. I even try all possible capitalizations and ways of stating it before it locks me out. What was your elementary school? Townewest Elementary Ok nope lets try Townewest Nope ok townewest Ok locked out go play phone tag again. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/9 "2015-10-01T00:31:39Z")
> [@grude](#): > > All because I created online access and it took me months to get the physical card, so by the time the card was in my hand the password was forgotten. Well, that’s your problem. The proper procedure is to write the password down as soon as you create it, on a post-it note, and stick that on the bottom of your keyboard! ---
**Author:** ![desertmonk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@desertmonk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/desertmonk)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/10 "2015-10-01T00:34:49Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Well, that’s your problem. > > The proper procedure is to write the password down as soon as you create it, on a post-it note, and stick that on the bottom of your keyboard! I have a notebook with about three pages of passwords. I can’t find the bloody thing. Whoops. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/11 "2015-10-01T00:40:30Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Repeat, thats after you get through the automated phone menu and past the first human gate keeper. Do you also need a [Keymaster](https://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/tumblr_lq2hwpO1yR1r102j3o1_500.jpg) to speed you on your merry way? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/12 "2015-10-01T01:09:47Z")
But do they ask you what’s in your wallet?? ---
**Author:** ![SuperAbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@SuperAbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperAbe)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/13 "2015-10-01T03:57:53Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > But do they ask you what’s in your wallet?? Pretty soon, “not Capital One”… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/14 "2015-10-01T05:41:39Z")
I’ve never heard of security questions like that. At every bank or credit card site where I’ve registered, during the registration process, it asks me to select one (or several) security question – usually from a drop-down list of several questions – and then I give my own answer. Various sites have given me various degrees of choice over what security questions I get asked, but they have ALWAYS allowed me to specify my own answers to those questions during the registration process. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/15 "2015-10-01T06:01:27Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > At every bank or credit card site where I’ve registered, during the registration process, it asks me to select one (or several) security question – usually from a drop-down list of several questions – and then I give my own answer. Lucky. When I opened my current bank account I had to go through a slew of questions, none of which actually had correct information about me. Some of them were kind of close, so I had to figure out whether I was _supposed_ to not know it or if they just have bad information. If it asks for my mother’s middle name, and it’s not there but my paternal grandmother’s middle name is, am I supposed to pick “none of the above” or my grandmother? Probably my grandmother, because my dad and I have the same name so we aren’t separate people in the eyes of the credit reporting system, but what about when it asks what street I lived on, and it doesn’t have any but does have a street I went to school on? And evidently **grude** is dealing with a system that’s even more diabolical since it isn’t multiple choice. You can’t even see if you recognize the wrong information as being _almost_ right. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/16 "2015-10-01T07:08:53Z")
I ran into a similar situation with regard to “public records” when trying to switch my cell phone carrier. Sprint asked me a series of questions where I could choose one of several answers or “none of the above.” They asked about streets I lived on, towns I lived in and previous employers. My answer for each was “none of the above.” Clearly the questions were meant to prove my identity, since it was online and I can’t just provide ID. That’s fair. But it says I got all three questions wrong. They denied me an account, even if I applied in person with ID to prove that it was really me, and said I could reapply in 60 days but I would have to answer security questions correctly in person then too, they’ve put an extra security claim on my name and social security number. The “public record” they were using was my Experian credit report – the one you can’t see in its entirety online without paying – where I found that all of the information on the Sprint questions I said wasn’t mine was right there. My history had been completely commingled with someone else’s. Let’s say my name is Amy Smith, hers is Amie Smyth, which was listed as an “alternative spelling” that I was alleged to have used. A search of [411.com](http://411.com) finds someone by that exact name at one of the addresses they say I’ve lived at/used. I filed the complaint to have the info removed, but my confidence in this system is shaken. If I was just assumed (without matching SSNs?) to also be Amie Smyth, what’s to stop them from assuming I’m Amy Smyth, Amy Smythe, Amy Smithe, and doing the same to all of them? ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/17 "2015-10-01T13:00:20Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Your subject line has two extra words on the end. > > CapOne sucks harder than Little Vinny’s Loan Shark Shop. I agree. Are they the same fine folks from Charter One? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/18 "2015-10-01T13:11:28Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Well, that’s your problem. > > The proper procedure is to write the password down as soon as you create it, on a post-it note, and stick that on the bottom of your keyboard! What, you can’t remember 1,1,1,1? ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/19 "2015-10-01T13:30:40Z")
I can’t remember what I was signing up for now, but the list of challenge questions they wanted for my file was ridiculous, I didn’t HAVE answers to them! I’m 54 years old, I don’t remember my teachers’ names. I’m not good at birthdays so I sure don’t know my aunt’s, plus she’s been dead for years. How the hell am I supposed to know now where I spent New Year’s Day when I turned 21?? There was a whole slew of things that really didn’t fit, and yes I could make stuff up but the I sure as hell wouldn’t remember any of it when I really needed it. Pisses me off. I’ve considered using the same bunch of answers for various types of questions - for instance if they ask for a name of a person or pet, a ‘who’ question, it’ll always be Agnes. If they ask a ‘where’ kind of question it’d always be Baltimore, and a ‘when’ would get Jan 1 1991. (All made up for examples of course!) As an aside, one of my biggest fears is that my husband will die and I’ll have NO idea of how to access all the important stuff for our business’s inner workings, all the computer & medical related stuff that he does. I’ve mentioned several times that he needs to keep this stuff somewhere other than his head, keep it up to date, and give me access to that info. Ain’t happened yet… ---
**Author:** ![norvalnormal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@norvalnormal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norvalnormal)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059/20 "2015-10-02T21:42:28Z")
Yeah, CapitalOne has been insane for at least a few years, especially since they took over what used to be ING “Orange” and made this CapitalOne360. They were offering a very good rate for a CD 2-3 years ago, and I went through an amazing amount of nonsense–both online and on the phone–before they informed me I had to go to a physical branch (the nearest is miles away) to purchase that product, despite the offer being posted on their website. And they used to offer “promotional” interest rates for checking/savings accounts that lasted for a year; the recent offers I’ve encountered are for 6 months only before the much lower “regular” rate kicks in–and, again, even though I can switch from one personal CapOne account to another online, the only way to close an account is to take a drive. As opposed to other banks’ offering rate incentives to customers who choose to open an account online … [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-capital-one-security-questions/733059.md?page=2)