BoF***Yourself
Just got off the phone with BofA Customer Service. Or maybe it was Quicken Customer Service—I'm not sure. Al asked me to get a Quicken PIN number so he could download my statements (he's the financial record-keeper in our family), so I called the BofA number. It wasn't clear from the menu options what I needed to do, so I pressed 4 for "if you need help with something else...." When I said I needed a Quicken PIN number, the chap on the other end of the phone said, "I'm going to transfer you to a Quicken representative. May I put you on hold?" He was nice enough about it, but I could tell from the tone of his voice that I should have pressed 3 for "if you're having trouble with Quicken...."
The Quicken representative I was connected with approximately 90 seconds later didn't seem to know anything about me, so I guess typing in my account number was only for BofA's benefit. I had to tell him what state I was in, give him my checking account number, my mother's maiden name, the state I was born in, and my date of birth. All the spam scam alarms were going off in my head, but I fought them down. The rep then asked if I wanted to have the service where I downloaded my statements from the website, or the one where I could open my statements directly from Quicken (which is $9.95/mo, though my super duper account status means that the fee would be waived). I said I didn't know—it was my husband who wanted the Quicken PIN to begin with. I said I'd ask him, hang on.
I typed the question to Al via AIM, and he asked if he could have both. The rep said fine, that he'd updated my account for the premium service, and that it would take 48 hours to process. I said, "ok, so I can download from the website now, but I have to wait 48 hours to open from Quicken?"
"No," he replied. "You need to wait two days for both, or it will get confused."
Uh, ok. He started to terminate the call, and I said, "wait, don't I need the PIN?"
"Your online banking ID and passcode are the PIN."
"Oh, so when I log on to the BofA website, I'm connected? Or do you mean that my online password is my Quicken PIN?"
"WHEN YOU OPEN QUICKEN YOU'LL BE PROMPTED FOR YOUR ONLINE BANKING ID AND PASSCODE, AND IT WILL CONNECT AUTOMATICALLY," he practically shouted. Apparently he thought this was obvious. For my part, I thought it was obvious that I wasn't the Quicken user, and that I was only asking for the PIN on my husband's behalf. I guess we were both wrong. :(