[jamesknelson]

The issue I imagine here is that calling the bank can be costly both in hold time and in phone fees. If banks were able to remove this disincentive to call by ensuring that their phone lines have zero wait time, and offering to immediately call back to avoid billed-by-the-minute phone charges (or in the case that they already offer this, by making it clear to customers), then I think there’s be a larger uptake of the idea of “hang up, look up, call back”.

As it stands, I’d be afraid of needing to wait 30 minutes in hold, and getting billed 30 minutes of call time by the phone company for the privilege. I’m not from the US, so it’s possible that your banks are doing this part better than the local ones, but that’s always the worry with the phone for me.

[dv_dt]

A citibank security call I received impressed me, they seemed to completely understand me wanting to call back and gave me instructions to get back to them through the phone menu of the corporate line (that I looked up). Iirc it included a case id that got you right back to the same security team.

[notyourwork]

As it should. The engineering (or lack there of) that goes into current processes is embarrassing.

[mcny]

On that note, I should name and shame T-Mobile USA. They called me back after my line got disconnected and proceeded to ask security questions to verify me and pretended to not understand my concern when I said how do I know you are who you say you are. They were calling me on my T-Mobile line.

[cyberlurker]

They are terrible with security all around.

[vlovich123]

Banks have 1-800 numbers which are free and generally most phone plans I’m aware of are unmetered by minute

[afavour]

I’m a lot more concerned about the time wasted being on hold for an hour than the minutes I’m burning…

[bostik]

While that's a real problem in general, I would think that for this particular group of people it might be less of an issue.

We are well paid, and as such majority of HN'ers should qualify for premier banking. One of the advantages in that is that you get access to quality in-house customer service, and may be able to call them directly from the banking app. (A really nice feature.) They tend to have good availability too. The plural of anecdote is not data, but I've never had to wait for longer than five minutes when I do have a problem that requires CS's involvement.

[na85]

I mean if there's actually a real problem with your account, spending an hour on hold might not be wasted time.

[tobr]

It’s still wasted time, and what’s worse, if it’s an urgent problem, that’s a situation where you can’t afford wasting that time.

[wongarsu]

Maybe it's not a good bank if you can't get a hold of them in a reasonable timeframe

[MattGaiser]

The person above is not from the USA. Unlimited everything plans aren't even that common in Canada.

[vlovich123]

I was replying to this:

> I’m not from the US, so it’s possible that your banks are doing this part better than the local ones, but that’s always the worry with the phone for me.

Since the person is asking about what it’s like here I’m providing that perspective. In Canada banks also provide 1800 numbers so it should generally be free. I thought Canada has mostly unlimited plans but I haven’t had a Canadian phone plan in over a decade.

[frosted-flakes]

Pretty much all Canadian phone plans have unlimited Canada-wide calling. For most people, the only limitation is data caps.

[pdonis]

> The issue I imagine here is that calling the bank can be costly both in hold time

The solution to the time wastage problem is for the bank to have a better method of sending you information than random calls out of the blue. Most banks have a message center on their website, where you can see any messages waiting for you when you log in and can send messages in reply.

[stjohnswarts]

this is why I have a credit union with multiple locations nearby and they only have 1 phone number for customer service and I know it by heart, good luck scamming me over email or txt, at least when it comes to my bank account :)

[passivate]

Apparently this is a thing..

https://symantec-enterprise-blogs.security.com/blogs/threat-...

[NavinF]

> 1 phone number for customer service and I know it by heart

Ehh that doesn’t change anything as far as having to call back. CallerID is trivially spoofed everywhere.

[stjohnswarts]

Obviously if your bank asks you to "verify" yourself after they've called you, it is 99% chance of being a scam and you just tell them you're going to call back and if they get desperate sounding it is 100% a scam.

[Talanes]

It immediately eliminates anyone not thinking to spoof-call GPs small credit union. Given that most of the scammy calls I receive are about accounts with places that I don't have accounts, I don't think that level of targeting is the norm.

[likecarter]

The context is for everyday people. Not everyone has the time, patience, or ability to do that.

[tatersolid]

> and getting billed 30 minutes of call time by the phone company for the privilege

What bank doesn’t have toll free dialing numbers, and what voice plan in 2021 doesn’t have unlimited voice calling minutes?

[tlogan]

But banks will never call you. At least not ones in US.

[banana_giraffe]

I have absolutely been called by Bank of America, both by an automated "did you really do this?" sort of fraud detection, and by a human calling to tell me my card number was known to be stolen and make arrangements.

Heck, I'm pretty sure I've gotten sales calls from them as well, though I never stay on the line long enough with those to be sure.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Same here. I also have a BoA account for most of my day-to-day stuff.

I use credit cards (in particular, an Apple Card) for almost every transaction. In fact, I seldom carry cash, which has been a problem, from time to time.

I won’t use Venmo, or PayPal with direct bank account connection. It has earned me scorn, but you really only need to have a problem once, to learn religion. I don’t use credit cards for Venmo or PayPal for cash transactions, because cash advance fees.

I always pay my account in full, every month. It also means I get Apple Cash, for a slush fund.

I do use direct bank account connection for a few things like utility bills, but that is a fairly primitive setup process, where there is no doubt about the other end. Even so, many outfits now allow bill pay, via credit card.

[romwell]

Yeah, no.

When I initiated a wire transfer, my bank did call me to confirm it.

What's worse, when I called back, I didn't reach the same department and it took half an hour to sort it through.

It was all legit, but was indistinguishable from a scam attempt.

[tlogan]

What is the name of the bank?

[albedoa]

I've been called by Chase and at least one other for fraud alerts. If I recall correctly, the Chase message instructed me to call back using the number on my credit card.

It is not correct that banks will never call you in the US.

[mcny]

However, a bank should not ask you to verify your identity when they call you. This is the missing piece. If anyone calls me, I should not give them any information they don't already have. If they are the fraud department, they already know everything.

[skoskie]

USAA calls me frequently. This broad statement is just wrong.

[tlogan]

What are they calling about? Just curious - it seems like I’m wrong. Also maybe there is opportunity to develop some service for them so they do not need to call.