technology

Washington Mutual, I'm disappointed in you.

I've banked with WaMu for the past several years, and they're fine. They aren't completely awful, the customer service agents are usually polite and helpful, and they haven't messed up my money yet; I suppose that's all I can ask for at this point in time.

However, over the past month, I've spent well over an hour--including three phone calls of at least 15 minutes each and one branch visit--just trying to get my debit card (which expires at the end of this month) replaced. I originally received my new card at the end of April. I was very unhappy to discover an RFID chip embedded in it. Because it is so very difficult and time-consuming to actually swipe my debit card to pay for something, WaMu now sends all their cards with PayPass, which allows the credit card information to be read at a distance with a scanner.

This is completely insecure and very unsafe, especially given that I live in NYC and ride the subways for two hours a day--prime territory for a scanner. RFID chips can be scanned by anyone at a distance with a scanner that only costs $8 to build.

Since WaMu talks big about their customer service, it should be easy to get a new card without this, right? Nope. I called on April 29 and had to speak to a manager in order to get them to send me a new one. The first agent insisted it couldn't be done and that it was perfectly safe. That card never arrived. (The Brooklyn Postal Service is in a whole nother realm of scary loss of data and personal information--this was the second credit card I did not receive this month.) I called on May 7 and was told to wait a few more days and then go to a branch. On May 10, I went to a branch and had a long conversation with someone, only to find out you can't get un-RFID-enabled cards at the branch. Tonight I spent another 15 minutes on the phone getting them to cancel the first card and send me a second one. At least this agent agreed with me that PayPass is inherently insecure. Maybe she reads Consumerist.

I will say that WaMu was slightly better than my other experience dealing with this: I also recently received a Chase credit card with PayPass. Chase is terrible so I pretty much expected the level of service I got: I had to argue with the agent about the insecurity (me: I actually know someone who built an RFID scanner. Please don't tell me it's difficult.), threaten to cancel my account, and speak to a supervisor in order to get a non-RFID card.