My Citi Prestige card arrived at my billing address and I’m not in town to claim it. I called Citi to have them overnight it to me at my current location. The automated system was adamant that I provide my card number before connecting me, something impossible to do given that I didn’t have my card.
Then when I was connected, the rep asked if I would authorize Citi to use my voice to authenticate my identity for future calls. Short answer: hell no. Why did I say no? I have no idea but there was something unseemly about Citi asking me to consent to having my voice on file (which I’m sure they already have from all those recon calls). In principle, it makes sense that banks do more than ask for your password and card number before enabling the caller to do whatever he wants to the account. Still, I think there’s enough privacy intrusion as it is and I’m sure I’ll still end up getting red flagged when I try to feed the bird, voice or no voice authentication.
Thoughts? Anyone?
