Comment by reaperducer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by reaperducer | Hacker News Reader

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The worst sites are the ones that truncate my generated password to fit their maximum password length and then don't tell me

Or worse, they truncate your password after you've already used it for years and years.

I had a 30-character password with Bank of America. Somewhere along the line, it changed its password requirements to only allow a maximum of 20 or 25 characters (I forget), which automatically invalidated my password.

The password was stored in my password manager, so I knew I wasn't entering it wrong.

BoA support said I should use the "change password" feature to update my password, but I couldn't because it requires me to enter the old password, which it would not accept. For some reason I can't remember, I couldn't use the "forgot password" feature. Maybe it also didn't work right.

I spent an entire day on the phone getting bounced from person to person before finally someone was able to take a new password over the phone.

Since Bank of America can't figure out how to build a web site login, I no longer trust it with my money. I emptied that savings account and paid off the credit card as quickly as I could. I no longer use BoA.

>Or worse, they truncate your password after you've already used it for years and years.

Worse than that must be the sudden realization that your bank probably saves your password in plain text somewhere.

As it's a bank that's probably the case, but you could have a change on the server side from

  hash($password) == $storedhash

to

  hash(substr($password,0,20)) == $storedhash

And you wouldn't get in, with any password (including just putting in the first 20 characters)

More likely they just updated the password during a successful login.

I'm not sure why anyone uses banks like BoA, Wells Fargo, First Niagara, etc.

Fidelity is a superior experience in nearly every way - just categorically. I'm not sure if people just don't know that you can use Fidelity this way?

The only downsides are no local branches, but that's hardly an issue unless you need a cashiers check. In those rare cases you can spin up an account at shitty bank, get the check, then close the account. I've had to do that maybe once ever.

You state that you don't understand why people use large, complex banks. Then state that you have a very simple, financially uninteresting life.

You answered your own question.

I have a pretty complex financial situation, but Fidelity can just do all of it more easily than retail banks.

Is there something banks like BoA do better that I'm missing? When I've asked people I know this I haven't gotten any good answers. I'm genuinely asking.

My impression is that BoA, Wells Fargo, etc. mostly take advantage of customers that don't know better options exist.

Your impression may come from the fact that many people don't talk openly about their finances to random people on the internet.

For me, Fidelity is a non-starter, for reasons that are none of your business.

It's nice that you like Fidelity. But it's a good idea to recognize that your finances and life situation are unique to you.

Cool - so a non-answer and condescending dismissal of genuine questions.

Lots of people talk about finances online. See r/personalfinance or r/financialindependence. It’s a good way to learn.

I am not "lots of people." I have no interest in being "lots of people," or in proving myself to strangers on the internet.

I cannot convey 50 years of my financial life, experience, and history into what fits in an internet post. Anyone who can probably has a very narrow view of finance. I can say that I know how to manage my finances, and my accountant agrees with my methods and track record.

But if you think Reddit is the route to financial literacy, I can understand why you don't understand.

That response is awfully unconstructive and dismissive. Perhaps you're able to articulate why you believe Reddit, specifically r/personalfinance and other reasonable boards, are bad, no?

I don't necessarily think Reddit is a good route to financial literacy. Nor do I know of a better route. Despite (or because?) of all that, I still think the question was reasonable. If you don't want to answer the question, that's fine. But you don't have to be so antagonistic about it.

In what way? I'd be curious to understand what it is you value about them, but your post reads more like marketing than a satisfied customer story.

No fees, also a brokerage, free checks, free atm, free wires, can trivially spin up IRA, move money between accounts, etc.

Phone call support has been surprisingly good whenever I’ve needed it.

When I used standard banks they often forced me to go in at difficult hours to do basic things and it took forever. They also had lots of fees (and as suggested in the parent comment, bad software)

I fully agree. The difference is the value exchange. At a normal bank they just want to charge you fees because you cost them money. Fidelity lets you keep your money with them in the hopes that as you grow your money, you'll spend it on their investment products, which I imagine everybody does.

Most brokers have some kind of cash account and they're always better than banks and almost always better than credit unions.

I recommend keeping a credit union account open too so you have a local branch if you need something in person.

So, for a bank the maximum is to allow NSA to crack it if they wish, right?

They kept insisting that a 20-character password is safer than one with 30 characters. I couldn't get them to understand otherwise.

On nsa.gov for a long time the max password length was 12 characters. Last checked in 2016.

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