This weekend, I started working on our taxes. As we all know, the first step is to gather all of your documents in one big pile. Lori and I live fairly simple lives, so this wasn't too difficult, but I did notice that I was missing our mortgage interest statement. I found an old mortgage document from Washington Mutual with an account number and 800-number on it and gave it a try.
The automated system asked for my loan number and the last 4-digits of my social security number. I entered both and was good to go. I navigated through the phone tree until I found "Your mortgage interest for the previous year" and got the information I was looking for. There was one problem though - the information was followed by a discomforting caveat: "This amount may not be the amount that was reported to the IRS. For the official amount, please visit wamu.com."
Now this was strange. What could possibly be the point of providing information that may or may not be reliable?
It's the IRS though, so I decided I should do my best to get the exact amount. I went to wamu.com and realized I had never created an online account. So, I clicked Create Account and landed on this page.
I actually started laughing when I saw it. Check out the informative line on the far right: Step 1 of 8. Just eight simple steps to an online account? I think that doing my entire tax return online last year involved fewer steps. Guess how many steps it takes to build the Mini Cooper of your dreams and order it from a local dealer? Six! Do you honestly expect me to go through 8 steps just to create an account? How many steps would it be after that to actually get the information I was looking for?
After a few minutes, I started thinking that the incredible number of steps must be due to stringent security requirements. After all, this is a banking site, so you can't be too careful.
But then I remembered that all I had to do just 10 minutes earlier was dial an 800-number, enter an account number followed by 4 digits and I was in. Complete access to everything about my Washington Mutual financial life. If I'm an existing customer, they have all of my information (name, address, phone, etc...), they just need to verify who I am. Here's a 1-page, 4-question version:
Email address:
Password:
Existing WAMU account number:
Last 4-digits of your social security number:
Needless to say, I left the site without creating an account. My time is too important and my standards too high. I'd much rather risk the wrath of the IRS and write a post about it.
Bryan... I went through the exact same process as you, but decided I'd at least give the 8 steps a try. There are actually only 4 steps, with 4 "review information" steps to make up their number of 8, so it really doesn't take that long. At the end however, I wasn't sure if I was submitting an application for a new account, or if they needed every vital number to prove I was really me. Therefore, it's not only the longest account creation process, it's also the most confusing.
Posted by: Chad | February 14, 2006 at 04:13 AM
At least you were able to try and use their system. We have two different mortgages on our home due to the type of loan we recieved and one half has been sold two or three times since we got the house back in March. He hadn't received one of the statements so I went online to try and access it.
I entered the information to create an account and it said since the account had been paid, or in this case sold to another company, I was unable to create an account with them.
dj
Posted by: Darrell Jordan | February 14, 2006 at 07:31 AM
Chad: Thanks for going through all 8 steps and proving for the rest of us that it's as confusing and circular as it looks.
Darrell: That doesn't sound like fun at all. I've heard a few WAMU horror stories similar to yours, but, thankfully, haven't yet had those types of issues. Good luck!
Posted by: Brian | February 16, 2006 at 10:42 PM