Originally Posted by
Traveloguy
Which is a strange argument to make as the OP seems to have ready access to the internet so could have easily topped their accounts up from overseas as required.
Access to the internet does not equate to being able to access your accounts.
It is a wise idea to change your password regularly on all your financial accounts (and definitely not to keep the same password for them all).
I have bank accounts in Israel, the US, and Germany. My Israeli credit card has a different password than the account to which it is linked. My Amex account has its own password. My brokerage account in the States has a different password.
From those alone, I have 6 different passwords, all of them at least 8 digits/letters, and all changed frequently. The e-mail account to which they are linked is one which is not web-based and can only be accessed by a computer program (like Eudora). I do not use this e-mail account for anything except financial institutions.
I can not remember all of these constantly changing passwords nor can I have any of these institutions send me my password except to my own computer (or laptop).
I do, however, have all the passwords in both my laptop and computer, albeit disguised in a way that anyone finding (or stealing) the laptop would have no idea that they are passwords, much less for what account.
Yes, this means a bit more work for me but it is worth it for the protection that it provides.
However, if that laptop is stolen when I am traveling I will not be able to access my accounts.
My protection, of course, lies in the fact that I have several different credit cards and they are never all in the same place. At least one is kept out of my wallet at all times.
But if I were married, and I kept only my Amex in my wallet while the others were in my wife's bag, I could well run into problems if her bag were stolen and my Amex was close to being maxed out (as it is right now).
Incidentally, while I have no idea of whether the jenniparks who posted on a different website is the same jenniparks who posts here, it is my understanding that FT protects members by not allowing any information to be posted about them if it was not first posted, by them, on FT itself.
(Should you ever decide to google "Dovster" be aware that I have found several different people with that user name.)