@johnb974 You do realize all banks and financial institutions use IAV and/or microdeposits to verify accounts if you transfer money from one bank to another. When you add an external bank account for transfers, your bank will prompt you to either do IAV and have you login with your other bank's login for instantaneous verification or microdeposits for paranoid people like you.

As for your quote "NEVER give anyone your bank log on information. I don't care how secure they say it is. It can always be hacked or stolen." -- True. However, you could never give your login info to anyone and a hacker could still potentially hack a bank and steal your login. Has happened before. Any website can be hacked and your information can be stolen without you sharing any login info.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2019 08:04AM by azncollege.

Anyone received the payment from Sentry for December shops? I see a pending transaction in the new platform, but no money has been deposited yet

Hello,
Please email our help desk if you have payment questions and we would be more than happy to assist.
Help@sentrymarketing.com If you want to email me I can assist as well. smunro@sentrymarketing.com
Payments are going out so please submit a ticket if you have any issues.
Thanks so much,
Susan

@boridi wrote:

Anyone received the payment from Sentry for December shops? I see a pending transaction in the new platform, but no money has been deposited yet

I know the fine print with my bank is I am not allowed to give out my login information. If I do and there is any kind of theft from my bank account they will not cover it because I gave out my login information. It’s a no brainer really.

Instant Account Verification (IAV) does not mean you are giving away your login information. IAV is done in coordination with financial institutions. Does anyone think that a bank would allow IAV of their accounts if the process did not meet the bank's security requirements? Of course not.

I understand we live in a time when "fake news" is shouted by daily people who find certain fact inconvenient, however, facts are facts and misinformation is misinformation. IAV is a safe and secure way of verifying a bank account. There is an alternate method of verification available for those who don't bank online or don't care for IAV.

@Jacqui wrote:

I know the fine print with my bank is I am not allowed to give out my login information. If I do and there is any kind of theft from my bank account they will not cover it because I gave out my login information. It’s a no brainer really.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Instant Account Verification (IAV) does not mean you are giving away your login information. IAV is done in coordination with financial institutions. Does anyone think that a bank would allow IAV of their accounts if the process did not meet the bank's security requirements? Of course not.

I understand we live in a time when "fake news" is shouted by daily people who find certain fact inconvenient, however, facts are facts and misinformation is misinformation. IAV is a safe and secure way of verifying a bank account. There is an alternate method of verification available for those who don't bank online or don't care for IAV.

@Jacqui wrote:

I know the fine print with my bank is I am not allowed to give out my login information. If I do and there is any kind of theft from my bank account they will not cover it because I gave out my login information. It’s a no brainer really.

Wasting your time my dear. You can't help everyone. Not everyone gets it.

I'm sure the banks love the system. It means they are no longer responsible for any funds taken from your account. Never give anyone your log on information.

@johnb974 wrote:

I'm sure the banks love the system. It means they are no longer responsible for any funds taken from your account. Never give anyone your log on information.

Are you somehow specifically qualified to give financial advice?

Sure sounds fishy. I would not give my Sign In password to anyone, much less an MSC

@johnb974 wrote:

I just noticed Sentry's new payment method. They want your bank sign in information, you're bank sign in name and password. No way am I giving anyone that information. I have never seen another site ask for this information. Other MSC have asked for bank account number and routing number, but never your bank log in information.

@johnb974 What is the FACTUAL basis for this claim? Please, cite your source of information.

You are entitled to your own opinions, but the misinformation you've spread in this thread is not helpful. IAV is used by literally thousands of applications every day, including PayPal. Not to mention that our payment app includes an alternate form of bank account verification.

At this point, all you are doing is stirring the pot and causing confusion.

@johnb974 wrote:

I'm sure the banks love the system. It means they are no longer responsible for any funds taken from your account. Never give anyone your log on information.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, trusts Plaid enough to partner with it. Plaid is valued at $2.65B. Plaid also has the backing of Citi, Google, American Express and Goldman Sachs.

I am not a banker. I am not a computer expert - much less a financial security expert. However, I will trust all of the above mentioned entities' trust of Plaid over any doubters on this forum.

Anyone that takes advice on this touchy matter deserves to be in trouble....I don't work for Sentry because of the banking problems with Dwolla and such. Paypal is the only acceptable money holder for me and direct deposit works with a check coming in third.

If someone were to steal information or commit a malicious act while using your account, you could be held responsible.
Even after you proved your innocence, you could still be held liable for giving out the information.

@Irene_L.A.

You wrote that direct deposit is an acceptable form of payment but you don't work for Sentry because of "banking problems with Dwolla and such". What banking problems are you referring to?

For the companies that pay you via direct deposit, how familiar are you with the security measures they have in place to protect your banking data? Is your account information data encrypted or is it stored in a spreadsheet on someone's computer? Is your payment information being emailed from one party to another?

How familiar are you with the underlying software these companies use to process their direct deposit payments? Is your data tokenized to prevent unauthorized access and exposure?

Are you aware that PayPal uses Instant Account Verification (IAV) to link a user's bank account to their PayPal profile?

Several months ago, a company withdrew money from shopper's accounts instead of depositing it. There wasn't nearly the level of consternation over that incident as there has been in this 5 page, 134 post thread. We gave great consideration to the security of our user's information when creating SePA and the criticism of IAV and the app is without merit.

I respect your opinion and your decision not to shop for Sentry. That being said, opinions are not facts and claiming something does not make it so.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

Anyone that takes advice on this touchy matter deserves to be in trouble....I don't work for Sentry because of the banking problems with Dwolla and such. Paypal is the only acceptable money holder for me and direct deposit works with a check coming in third.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2019 06:53PM by Sentry Marketing.

@MFJohnston wrote:

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, trusts Plaid enough to partner with it. Plaid is valued at $2.65B. Plaid also has the backing of Citi, Google, American Express and Goldman Sachs.

I am not a banker. I am not a computer expert - much less a financial security expert. However, I will trust all of the above mentioned entities' trust of Plaid over any doubters on this forum.

Enough of this factual information! I prefer speculation from people with less than $100 in their bank accounts (not talking about you Irene).

I just used IAV the other day to open an online savings account for a shop. Easy peasy.

When I download a new app on my phone, there's usually an option to sign up using Facebook. In the past, I have changed my Facebook password before signing up for the new account, and then changing it back immediately after. More recently, I have not bothered changing my password, and I have never had my Facebook account hacked. What Sentry is doing is the same thing. I'm not signed up with Sentry, but I wouldn't worry about the process. My bank account has the added security of a two step process. A password is worthless without that extra step.

I know this isn't about the current thread of banking and deposits with Sentry, but I have a little bit of an issue with them, banking aside.

I mystery shopped quite a bit in years past and did several shops for Sentry. I actually loved the "can we offer you a shopping cart?" big box store shops...

Recently, I've picked up shopping again and decided to try out Sentry, doing a shop at a FF restaurant I wasn't thrilled to go to, but the schedulers were begging and offering bonuses. I figured, "What the heck. With the bonus, it will be a free night out with husb." So we went.

The next day, I had a question from an editor. It took me six hours to get the question answered.

Now my pay is being docked, basically in the amount of the bonus.

I don't think I'm too thrilled about picking up those FF shops ever again. No matter how much the begging or bonuses look attractive.

Sorry to hear about your pay getting docked. It sounds unreasonable since you were responding as fast as you could and you were helping them out. What's their reason ?

I am actually not completely sure. I have not been working much lately and I have not kept up with payments lately, so today, I just went through my binder to find things not paid yet...

On their payment site, it says that it's late. Would this be a late invoice? Or because it took 6 hours to respond? IDK. It's been a long time since I worked with them and I'm not entirely familiar with all their "ropes," to be honest. Either way, I was looking at/considering those shop offerings today, thought about pay from the last shop, and decided that I would rather decline those shops. LOL. Guess I'm being a bit snarly and/or confused at the moment.

And in all honesty, today has been a completely "snarly" sort of day. Maybe it's time to just go to bed. haha

Thanks for your response, though; it was nice to have a response today

I contacted my bank and they said absolutely positively NEVER give your login information to anyone.

Did you ask your bank if they allow accounts to be verified via Instant Account Verification? Again, why would financial institutions allow this type of account verification if the method was not safe and secure?

@shoppingfool wrote:

I contacted my bank and they said absolutely positively NEVER give your login information to anyone.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Did you ask your bank if they allow accounts to be verified via Instant Account Verification? Again, why would financial institutions allow this type of account verification if the method was not safe and secure?

@shoppingfool wrote:

I contacted my bank and they said absolutely positively NEVER give your login information to anyone.

I've also asked my bank about this. They looked at me shocked. They agreed, never give out your password.

@johnb974
It's time for you to pull all your money out of the bank. Every bank in the U.S. now uses that system.
[techcrunch.com]

You might be asking tellers and bankers about this, However, those are low-level bank employees who might have zero idea how the technology behind their banking services actually works.

If you are going to ask your bank about this, I would encourage you to be specific and ask about Instant Account Verification. The devil is in the details and specificity matters.

I will keep my password to myself.

OMG I just read this entire thread and holy cow I have a headache and I'm missing 30 minutes I'll never get back.

Why is everyone here so F'ing hard headed? All of you. As a an ex-IBM employee who used to have a bit to do with security and an ex-Banking and Finance major in college I'm probably a fraction more informed than the average Joe (but only a fraction). My opinion:

Is IAV safe? Almost assuredly.
Would I use it? Absolutely not.
Why? Because someone else has your banking logon.
Do they store it or have it forever? Nope
Does that mean they can use it? Almost assuredly not.
Then why is it a big deal? Because once you give that up if someone else gets in your account you're SOL. It doesn't matter if the IAV was hacked or someone looked over your shoulder and saw you login you intentionally provided your banking login and you are therefore 100% legally at fault.
Will a bank push that if it happens? Probably not
Then why is it a big deal? Because it could happen and there's no reason to use it instead of micro deposits.
Are microdeposits any safer? Probably not
Then why is it better? Because it doesn't create a liability for you
Is Dave/Sentry/Dwolla/Whoever being irresponsible offering IAV as an option? Absolutely not
Should you stay away from people who offer IAV as an option? Probably not

When I was in the IT world we dealt a lot in risk management, especially in building clients (workstations, PCs, laptops, etc to the non-techies). So you're constantly looking for risk and how to mitigate it and eventually you start doing it with everything. Interestingly my brothers and I recently bought an apartment building and I'm always the one noticing things we need to change to mitigate risk that neither of them ever notice. Anyway, IAV is probably safe, but the risk to you as a person is in how your bank would hold you accountable if you used it and then were a victim of someone cleaning your account out. That's really the only reason to think about not doing it. The likelihood of that happening is fairly close to non-existent so I can certainly understand why many people would have no issue doing it. I also don't see any reason to be so over the top holyshitthisisevilhorribleyouregoingtohellforevenofferingit though.

Almost every bank offers the opportunity to track all of your accounts through their portal. Heck, most accounting and budget software offers this. Link your other financial accounts to track everything in one place.

Less impact but to use Jobslinger they ask you to link all of your Sassie accounts, by providing your ID and Password via their site.

@isaiah58 wrote:

Almost every bank offers the opportunity to track all of your accounts through their portal. Heck, most accounting and budget software offers this. Link your other financial accounts to track everything in one place.

I thought of that myself several times while reading this thread. I don't use those either, for the same reasons, but I can't imagine banks would offer it if it wasn't safe.

One thing I have done with my debt card, I rarely have over $100 in the account. I've had my debt card hacked from using it as a gas station. Most times I now go inside to pay.

Most folks are not aware that with debit cards, you may be on the hook for hacking, fraud, etc. whereas with charge cards, there are protections against those losses.