Online Bank Account Verification Process

[SkisALot]

DH and I set up an online account with INGDirect. During the telephone verification process they asked each of us multiple choice questions about his ex-wife, a person I have never known and he has not seen in at least 30 years. (They did not have children.) Neither one of us could answer the questions. When DH told the "interviewer" that he didn't know the answers, (and the answers did not include an "I don't know.") she said, "You knew her, so you have to answer." He didn't know the answers; neither did I, and so they closed the account. We checked our credit reports. Clean. He called the home office and they basically told him "tough." Has anyone else had this kind of experience with online banking?

[CuppaJoe]

That sounds outrageous. The only thing close that's happened to me is in regard to my credit reports which I do check online sometimes. At one time a dept. store credit card got forwarded to my sibling's (now former) address. So when the question comes up, "do you recognize this address," I just type in "yes" rather than bother to try to correct the problem. They no doubt assume it is my prior address. Funny thing is it's in a very good zip code which may help my credit rating(?)

[LOL!]

I never had to talk to anyone to set up an online account not even at ING.

In one case, I didn't even need money: To get a 0% interest cash advance from USAA, I had to apply online for the credit card, then I had to deposit the cash advance into a USAA deposit account (savings or checking). To open the checking account I had to make a small deposit, but I could just do a cash-advance against the newly opened credit card. So I did a $1 cash advance which allowed me to open the checking account and then borrow $25,000 in total at 0% interest. I then did an ACH transfer out of USAA to my brokerage account to get a good interest rate on a money market fund. I've never put any money into my USAA account that wasn't directly borrowed from USAA.

Anyways, I didn't think they had real people to talk on the phone to with these online places.