4 ms·
I had a problem with a broken phone token recently. My phone screen broke (turned black), so I wasn't able to log in to my business bank account, not even thro
by jlokier 4y ago
I had a problem with a broken phone token recently.
My phone screen broke (turned black), so I wasn't able to log in to my business bank account, not even through the web portal on my laptop. Web login on the laptop requires confirmation via the phone app, but with a black screen I couldn't figure out how to confirm. (It also needs the phone camera to read a QR code, so I guess it would have been a problem if the screen worked but the camera stopped working.)
I phoned the bank and said, surely there must be another way to authenticate in these situations. Or perhaps I could just use bank services over the phone?
Their answer was no, the only option to access any bank services was to purchase another smartphone, move my SIM over, call the bank to activate the new device, and then video myself reading some text. Then I would be able to use the new phone to login to my account on the web on my laptop.
As a result I wasn't able to access the bank account for several days to make payments, until my new phone arrived.
Then similar fault occurred on the new phone a few weeks later (identical model, bought used in a hurry, see above). This time I had just caught Covid so I wasn't going to rush out to local shops for a third phone.
During all this, the original phone was acting as a Google 2FA token for a client Google work account (unrelated to the bank account). Logging in to that Google account required confirmation on the phone, and it had to do something Googley, it didn't accept third party 2FA apps. I never did figure out how to to transfer that token over, but that Google account isn't needed any more so I no longer care.