Another Tangerine security nightmare | Tangerine Bank | Discussion forum

Fully agree. I would not limit myself to online digital banks only and indeed would not use online digital banks as my primary banking. My POA and Executor will/should thank me.

HermanH said

I cringe at the stupidity awaiting me after she passes, if I have to gain access to her accounts and settle her affairs.  

Actually, when we cleared my mom's estate, of all the banks she had dealings with, Tangerine was the most (and by far) efficient and quick to liquidate all accounts. There were two others (from the big 5) that she had dealing with, and they were both horrendous, disorganized and slow as molasse in winter. That was our experience with Tangerine, hope yours will be as efficient when time arrives.

HermanH said
My mother logged into Tangerine and did her business over the weekend. Two days later, she tries to get back into her accounts and enters her UserID and password. Tang is set to send her 2FA via text, but it never arrives. So, she tries again. No luck. Fearing a security lock-out from too many attempts, we call into a CSR and ask what's happening. She completes her transactions and is told that it might be due to maintenance, since it was about that time. She was told to try back in the morning. I warned the CSR that we didn't want to get locked out from security, since it takes forever to get them on the line. She assured us that everything looked okay on their end and she had cleared any attempts.

My mother tries the next morning and promptly gets locked out. Because we have some joint accounts, I am also locked out of my accounts.

For the next 3 hours, we try to get my mother bank into the system. However, every time I try to explain the problem to Security (her inability to receive 2FA via text), they refused to do anything because I am not the account holder and promptly hang up. 6 TIMES, this happens over THREE HOURS. She tried to tell them to talk to me and that she authorized it, but they refused outright.

My mother is 90 yrs old and speaks English poorly. I can barely understand or explain the situation. How the heck can she tell them what is happening, even with me trying to whisper the explanation into her ear?

They kept trying to authenticate her by asking inane questions such as, "what is the balance in one of your accounts?", "if you have a GIC, what are the maturity instructions?", or "What was your last transaction?" The ultimate insult was, "Tell us the security code we just sent you via text". I exploded and told them that was the entire reason she was contacting you, SHE CAN'T RECEIVE 2FA TEXT!

Who can remember this stuff? She's 90-yrs old and can't remember what she had for breakfast. I do, only because I help her with her accounts. The whole point of going online is to check these things.

After 3 hours, I finally tried a different path and entered my account to clear security and regain access before asking the CSR to switch accounts and clear security for my mother. She got her password re-set and everything works, as long as she uses the telephone system and not a computer.

A service request was put in for their IT to call and figure out why they stopped sending 2FA via text is in process. The scary thing about this is that they could conceivably have kept ignoring her requests for help and refusing to allow anyone to help the process. And this was ALL created from Tang's end. Everything worked, until they broke something. (She can receive text from other contacts.) They could not even change the 2FA from text to phone call or change phone numbers.

Just now, it seems to have cleared and she received a torrent of text messages from Tang. Whew. Just scary how she also managed to get me locked out of my accounts.

I cringe at the stupidity awaiting me after she passes, if I have to gain access to her accounts and settle her affairs.  

If I can suggest an explanation for the problem about 2FA. 6 months ago I had a weird charge on my cell phone bill around $5 and when I called the phone company about that they reversed the charge and told me it was from a premium text message and that I can put a hold on premium text message to avoid that situation in the future. So I did that but one of the consequence is that this hold also blocked all my 2FA texts from my financial institutions. So just a thing you might want to check with your cell provider. Good luck.

Several months ago, EQ was having problems sending the user authentication code via email.

When I called them the CSR said it was a re-occuring problem on their end that was fixed earlier in the day, but then broke again in the afternoon. There was no ETA for a fix, other than to keep trying over the next hour or so.

The problem was fixed within an hour after my call, and that's when I saw all the EQ email earlier attempts appear all at once in my email inbox.

So whether it's emails or texts, the account authentication process is often hanging by a thread (but this thread is not to blame).

My 75-year-old friend is in a Long-term care home, wheelchair bound, and yet Scotia Bank wants him to go to the bank with his expired debit card (since he got one silly question wrong) to get a new one (he was moved to a different LTC before the new card was mailed to his previous home that he no longer lives in). Sure, it was his fault for not trying to change the address, but since he has no online account, the bank wouldn't let anybody else help him out, once he failed the authentication questioning process.

At leas his Scotiabank account still works, so his LTC can automatically take his money to pay the rent (while I can help him access his money from a different bank, that has online access).

Hello, sir. Before we send you another card, can you tell me if you use an initial?

Answer: No.

Sorry, sir, you lose.

With no Scotia online account to check, he didn't know if there was an initial used or not, so he thought they wondered if he still signed his name using his initial, and answered no.

The next month when I visited him to sign his tax return, I had him practise his signature before he signed the tax return, and then laughed when he added his middle initial for the first time in years. I told him not to bother using his middle initial since he didn't use it the previous year when he signed the tax return.

He may be old, but his brain still works.

Irrespective of whether I can receive SMS or not, Tangerine guys should give alternative method to authenticate. could be an email, could be something else.
I tried calling them to remove 2FA, but was told no.
What happens if I am out of country and do not have roaming service, how am I supposed to login.
Unnecessary hassles in the name of security.

DevPatel said
I tried calling them to remove 2FA, but was told no.
 

It is very simple and easy.
You need to call them and tell them that you do not have phone.
That is all, 2FA will be removed and you will have security questions as before.
Me and a few other people did that, absolutely no problem.

I closed 2 accounts online at Tangerine, very easy, just press Close Account button. No calling needed.