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Comment by k8svet | Hacker News Reader

If Schwab would fix their account security to allow plain TOTP instead of the scam that is Symantec VIP, I would have nothing but good... well, there was the two times, yes, two times in a month that I had to spend hours on the phone telling them to stop letting people randomly transfer securities into my account without my consent. They assured me that (1) it would be illegal for me to refuse the request to take back the money and (2) that I could not block future transfers-in from happening and they could not implement a system requiring my authorization before such transfers. The clawback letter from the originating bank even pointed out that they hadn't noticed until I raised flags.

I loathe American financial companies, mostly because they all seem rankly incompetent.

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> If Schwab would fix their account security to allow plain TOTP instead of the scam that is Symantec VIP

Symantec VIP is just TOTP with a proprietary app/enrollment process. It has been reverse engineered [1], allowing you to use any TOTP app. I have been accessing Schwab and other banking sites this way for years.

[1] https://github.com/dlenski/python-vipaccess

Oh this is great thanks. I've been annoyed by symantec for a long time.

I know, and I still resent them for making me run Python. Hell, even Ameriprise got their act together and has support for plain TOTP. I about fell out of my chair when I saw that.

Interesting. I was considering opening a second account specifically as a backup card and hedge against lockouts while travelling, and Schwab was high on my list, but it sounds like based on your experience that they are not fit for purpose.

The way it was explained to me is that this (a glorfied Excel sheet of transfers that get executed at a certain hour of each day) is just how intra-bank securities transfers work and that I mostly got unlucky that (1) the intended recipient was at Schwab (2) whoever was doing these transfers has dyslexia and my account was a number transpose off.

For the most part, their customer support has been excellent. I had an ATM in France eat a card, and so I infact have two bank accounts with them. They refund ATM fees, have never given me a hard time about international withdrawals, do support TOTP, albeit in a round-about way, send very prompt email alerts with customizable thresholds. Of all the banks I've had, I'm most happy with them. Just consider if you need access to a physical branch. Luckily, despite my whining, my needs are rather simple.

Thanks for the information!

I've used Schwab for 11 years and nobody has ever transferred securities into my account without my request. My biggest complaint is not supporting U2F/WebAuthn/Passkeys. My second biggest complaint is that their brokerage billpay was extremely broken and always locked me out of my account. That was always a "call support" type situation. But... they fixed that! They knew the system was bad, so they replaced it with one that's not bad.

In general, I think they have done a fine job. I have worked with them to transfer in old 401(k) accounts. I used a wire transfer out of Schwab to buy my apartment, which cleared in less than a minute. I have called support and they have been helpful and efficient. I really don't have any complaints.

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