Treasury Direct Fail

You have made too many invalid entries. Your account has been locked and can no longer be accessed. Please contact us at (304) 480-7711.

In case you were wondering, Treasury Direct hates giving access just as much today as it did 8 months ago when I challenged them to a conversion.

The log in process:

1.  Remember if your account number begins with a letter or a number.  Frantically look it up in email archives, hope hope hope …. (Is it too much to ask for the option of naming your account instead of using the numbers?)

2.  Remember that idiotic string of numbers, letters, and symbols they forced you to concoct.

3.  Fail three times, get the hint, fail once more before succeeding.

4.  Answer three of eight security questions listed.  Oh wait, remember WHICH three you answered in the first place when you set up the account three years ago.  Answer just those three. If you can’t recall which three they were, then you can answer every single question there.  If you can’t remember the answers, or figure out what you used as placeholders when you got bored during account set-up, do not proceed to step 5.

5.  I didn’t proceed to step five, so I don’t know when the secret access decoder ring card comes into play anymore.

*sigh*  

The only nice thing about getting locked out is when you call the number listed above and they’re busy, they’ll take a message and call you back.  Now the nice man at the Treasury Department who called back to answer my question and unlocked my account has the information he needs to steal my identity and blackmail me at the same time.  Score! 

PostScript:  Seeing “Untd St Govt” on the caller I.D. can startle you even if you haven’t done anything wrong.  When you haven’t done anything, I mean, when.