I don't think you're giving those seniors good advice. When the banks ask people to "switch" to passkeys, they're not removing the passwords; they're adding passkeys as an alternate login mechanism.

If you lose your bank passkey, (e.g. if you put it in the wrong password manager and you can't figure out where it is) you can just sign in with your bank password.

In the worst case, banks actually don't make it very hard for seniors to reset your password/passkey; just show up at a branch with photo ID, your bank card, and your PIN, and a teller will help you reset your credentials. They do it all the time.

And, remember, seniors could also put a randomly generated password into the wrong password manager. In that case, they'll either have to reset their password, or they'll have figure out what they did, retrieve their password from the OS password manager, and transfer that password to their preferred password manager.

The exact same story applies to passkeys, except, because passkeys can't be copied and pasted, you'd have to figure out how to use the finicky app-to-app transfer system ("Credential Exchange Protocol"). That's probably too complicated for most seniors, so falling back to a password is almost certainly their best bet.

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Marsymars 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> In the worst case, banks actually don't make it very hard for seniors to reset your password/passkey; just show up at a branch with photo ID, your bank card, and your PIN, and a teller will help you reset your credentials. They do it all the time.

Maybe... I just ran into an annoying scenario where the largest bank in Canada made an administrative error where they mislinked an account belonging to me to my wife's profile.

I went to a physical branch to get it fixed and was told that branches don't have that kind of ability so I'd have to call customer support.

I called customer support and failed the verification questions because the expected answers were wrong, based on their own clerical error. After failing the verification questions, I just got a "we have to end this call, no additional information can be provided, please visit a branch."

I was able to get around it by calling back in and providing the incorrect, but expected answers to pass the verification step - I imagine, however, that this could have turned into a real nightmare for seniors, or anyone who wasn't able to deduce what the expected verification answers were.

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Telaneo 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> I went to a physical branch to get it fixed and was told that branches don't have that kind of ability so I'd have to call customer support.

What are the branches even for if not customer support?

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baby_souffle 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> What are the branches even for if not customer support?

Lots of physical locations make the bank seem big/safe/reputable.

Beyond that, it's sales and a place to have ATMs. I have sometimes been able to get a replacement card issued at a branch instead of waiting for one to show up in the mail.

Some branches will accommodate special requests like "can I withdraw $200... in two dollar bills" / take coin deposits but that's been increasingly rare.

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SoftTalker 2 days ago | parent [-]

My local branch has had a sign on the front door "our coin counter is broken, sorry for the inconvenience" for the past 6 months. I refuse to believe they don't have a working coin counter in a bank branch; they just don't want customers bringing in a big jars of coins.

	▲	Melatonic 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I didnt even realize you could do that - I just assumed you still had to roll your own coins or use a service like Coin Star

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toyg 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A meeting space to discuss business services, and a terminal for people who insist on depositing cash. They are definitely not a customer support terminal.

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marysol5 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Banks don't want to run physical branches anymore, hence why, at least in the UK all local branches are done. And central branches are all that exist.

They want to close even them because the only services they have now is ingesting cash, which is getting less and less anyway.

But yeah, any time I've gone into a branch, which they made me do a few months ago to "validate" my documents for a mortgage. Which was just scanning and uploading to their internet..., they've made me sit on the phone to their call centre.

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crote 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Sales. They are there to talk you into getting the premium mortgage.

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andy99 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is more a statement of how awful Canadian banks are than anything else. For anyone unaware we have an oligopoly of five identical banks all of which treat their customers like shit and effectively extract tax from the Canadian population while providing nothing.

	▲	ChoGGi 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> while providing nothing. You forgot about the endless frustration and annoyance.
	▲	YuccaGloriosa 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Ironic given the prime minister's former employment

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kuekacang 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

With advent of ai-based impersonation, I wonder why in-person reset is not the priority right now

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no_no_no_no 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

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pishpash 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Uh, if you set up a passkey it becomes the default almost always. Then on another device it'll pop up looking for it and look like login failure and you need to "try another way". That's alarming to anyone, not to mention seniors.

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dfabulich 2 days ago | parent [-]

Sure, that's alarming, but if you set up a passkey on the "wrong" password manager, you've (temporarily) lost your passkey. You should probably be kinda alarmed about that.

You can click "try another way" and use your password, and then you'll have access to your bank. But then, you should try to resolve that problem. If you (or a trusted friend/family member) can figure out how to use settings to remove the passkey from your bank's account settings, you can do that, or you can ask a bank teller to help you, instead.

(And, luckily, you won't need a bank teller, because you'll still have access to your account.)

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tetromino_ 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> you can ask a bank teller to help you

At virtually all banks, the bank tellers cannot help you with login problems. You will have to call the bank's tech support and somehow navigate AI-modulated phone menu hell.

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dfabulich 2 days ago | parent [-]

Citation needed. Walk in with photo ID, a bank card, and your PIN, and all the major banks will send you a reset-password email.

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soupbowl 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I went to my bank with all my ID and my bank card, talked to the teller and was told to call a support line. One of my parents went through the same thing.

I don't have a citation for you just recent experience, do you have a citation?

	▲	SoftTalker 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Switch to a better bank. My credit union has people who can help with any online banking/website login issues. They aren't tellers, but they are there. You just need to ask to speak to a customer service rep.

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crote 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Tried this, they weren't even able to verify my ID for KYC reasons. Had to go a second time after they blocked my account with zero warning. I have zero expectation that they will be able to help me with a password reset

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tekla 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I help run a non-profit and the only time I have ever been able to get this kind of service is when I visit a bank that has in-person business services. Tellers do not have any ability to do any of this.

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selicos 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Even my primary Credit Union is limiting teller roles in branches. There are still people to help, but then you have to go in person. My nearest branch is a day trip away but I can do most banking tasks at any partner CU location.

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zabzonk 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> just show up at a branch

In the UK at least, there are very few brick & mortar branches anymore - banks expect everything to be done online.