BBVA

We only ended up dealing with BBVA because they were the "partner bank" for Simple banking.

Simple was set up almost like a social network for money: you can "friend" anyone else who has a Simple account, and instantly send them money with no transfer fee. You can also set up a joint account (with exactly one other person, so this isn't as flexible as it should be) which either person can transfer money into or out of, and both owners get Visa debit cards which draw on that account. We use our Simple joint account for most of our groceries and bill-paying.

...but (1) Simple refused to give B an account, twice, and refused to say why (although they did let Z have one, go figure)...

...and then (2) BBVA did a merger of some kind and, at roughly the same time, decided to close down Simple. All Simple accounts were to be folded into BBVA's system, and would be only available via BBVA's online banking starting May 8 (but not prior to that; there was no overlap).

2021-05-08 (Sat)

On Saturday May 8, I tried to activate our BBVA accounts, in accordance with the instructions which arrived in email that morning. There were problems, so I thought I should give them another day to finish the migration.

2021-05-09 (Sun)

On Sunday May 9, I tried again. It went like this:

sign-in unsuccessful; try again You must enroll in Passmark! (No information about what that is.) Your account has been locked; please tap "forgot password" Your account has been locked; please call. Your online banking has previously been activated; please call.

I tried calling them a few times, but couldn't reset my password through their automated system and couldn't get through to a person.

2021-05-10 (Mon)

I had time to sit on hold for about half an hour in the morning, but couldn't get through.

A few hours later I tried again and was told, in rapid succession, "we are sorry, there is a problem", "all our operators are busy", "your information is invalid", "please hold" and then someone picked up the line. In the space of about 20 minutes, the customer service rep managed to get my account set up. She was polite and friendly but a bit hard to understand, due in part to compression. She tried to help me get Harena's account set up too, but for some reason had to forward me to tech support, which apparently (surprise!) meant getting back in the phone queue, with the same message-loop playing.

I gave it 5-10 minutes then hung up. I left a message through my online banking -- but I'm betting they'll tell me to call the same exact number.

...and then when I was trying to connect Revolut to my account, I managed to get locked out again because I couldn't see what I was typing in response to the security question. Trying to scroll the screen had no effect. So then we had this:

I hadn't yet gotten around to adding a mobile number; I was about to do that. I had no idea it would be the only way I could unlock my account.

I've been calling repeatedly, but they keep hanging up on me because of "difficulties".

As it is now, I have ways of withdrawing funds from my checking and our shared checking, but not my savings or either of Harena's solo accounts.

2021-05-11 (Tue)

I called once while waiting for Mel to get his second COVID vaccination, and actually got through to a human being -- who told me that she couldn't add a cellphone to my account, or do anything at all really, because of some system problem that wasn't specific to me. I asked how long I should wait before calling back; she said an hour.

Several hours later I called again and was on hold for 49 minutes before running out of time.

2021-05-12 (Wed)

On Reddit, I found a different phone number to try. The suggested sequence of numbers just put me back into the same phone queue as before, as did one or two other sequences, but I finally got through with one sequence (I think I chose "4" instead of "0") and, after answering a lot of questions and following instructions on the desktop, got my account reset and with a cellphone number attached. Then I asked if we could also fix Harena's, which the service rep was also happy to do.

So now there's just Z's account, but that can wait until the dust dies down a bit.

Links

• 2021-05-10 Shutdown of Portland online banker Simple is a mess; clients lost access to their money
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• 2021-05-09 Simple bank shutdown goes awry leaving customers without account access