“What’s your mother’s maiden-name?”

Last night (Friday, June 20, 2008) I was updating our online checking account.
So I decided to verify our Visa account.
Capital idea! Access Chase-Visa online, verify our charges to date, and make sure nothing fishy is going on.
I’ve done this before — in fact, just recently when a gas-pump ate our receipt, so I had no idea what our purchase was.
Chase is a FireFox bookmark, but (uh-oh......) it’s showing me the full log-in screen; like it forgot my user-name.
So I enter my user-name and password (which I have on a monitor prompt-tab), and NOW WHAT! Looks like Chase has decided I no longer exist, or perhaps an unrelated software upgrade has vaporized everything on restart.
Chase demands the kerreck log-in and password.
I do so, and Chase stonewalls. It demands I create a new password.
I log in again; “Naughty-naughty! Too many log-in attempts. Back to square-one. Verify identity. Create new password. What’s your mother’s maiden-name?”
For crying out loud! Chase is turning a simple two-minute log-in into a HUGE two-hour hairball.
I gave up. Some other time. Chase is demanding I create a new password. I got e-mail to process. It’s 9:30 p.m.
I don’t have time for madness like this.

My Internet browser is “FireFox.”