What happen if I lost the security device? How do I identify myself with IB? How do they make sure its me calling? And how long does it take for me to be able to log into my account to trade, after they identified me? I imagine this can be quite tense moment if it happens, especially if one has huge exposure that can't be managed. Thank you.
They will ask you a series of security questions on the phone and then issue you a PIN that will be good for 5 days. During those 5 days you will receive a new device via FEDEX. If for some reason your shipment doesn't reach you within 5 days you can receive another 5 day PIN by just calling them and re-verifying yourself.
On second thought, isn't the verification process itself a threat to security? The questions have to be quite specific other than common things like name, address, account number etc, yet have to be simple enough that the real account holder should know?
They will ask stuff like DOB, Address, Place of Birth etc. Anything that was submitted in the account opening. Once verified, they will only ship the device to the address listed on the account. Pretty safe if you ask me unless you have somebody in your household/office you can't trust.
what happens is a big f*cked up situation the extent of which you will only find out about when it happens to you. No rep on the phone for hours You can't remember the stupid security questions answers dumb ass robotic rep won't hear anything Meantime your account is taking a 30% hit Of course IB won't care for it and won't be liable for anything as usual .
Anything can happen. I guess all customers of IB and any other broker should ponder the question whether they are overall safer WITH or WITHOUT a security PIN device.
If a brief service outage at your broker threatens to cause you a 30% loss, perhaps you are using too much leverage and taking too much risk?
I am always under leveraged these days but in these markets even the long term diversified investor I more and more have become can take a big one day hit . As for IB phone response time, it's been going downhill for sometime now. And guess what sometimes they only have one or two people in their overseas office, from their own admission !