Remote access

One of the best things I did was put "Team Viewer" on my mom's computer. It has saved me hours of frustration, trying to help her with things on her computer. We've had to use it twice in the last week or so. She had Norton Anti-virus on her computer past several years, that she pays for. I think it's like $100 a year (not exactly sure how much). She had asked me awhile back if she should keep that. Since she was moving here, basically uses her computer for email and playing solitaire, I told her let's not renew/pay for it. Once she gets moved over here I can put something on her computer to help protect it, that is free. So, we (mostly me) have been deleting all the emails she kept getting reminding her it was due to renew. I kept deleting the emails as fast as possible, otherwise she'd keep asking me, because she forgets we decided not to renew.

Pretty much everything about the computer confuses her. I was telling her where to find the "ESC" button, I kept saying up on the top left of your keyboard.....finally I realized she didn't know what the keyboard meant. I said the part where you type! It's very hard for her to communicate to me what is going on with her computer when she doesn't know what's what with it and what words are used for it's parts.

Last week, when she turned on her computer (she always keeps it turned off when not in use) Norton messages were popping up, because it has expired. I didn't think of that happening. I got on Team Viewer and removed the program from her computer. Yesterday afternoon she called me because she couldn't get logged into her bank account. I'm not really sure what she was doing, as I had set it up so she didn't have to enter her password every time. But, I also have that happen to me sometimes. Saved passwords just don't fill in. Supposedly she was entering the password correctly, but hard to say. She's very confusing to talk to when she's trying to say what is on her screen. I got her to close it all out and open Team Viewer and I got on. First off, there was another pop up and icon for Norton. What the heck. I went and uninstalled again. Maybe a part I missed the first time, I guess. Then opened her Firefox and banking tab and both her user id and password were auto filled in, so I'm not sure what happened.

While on, it was a good time to "do some banking" for her.  She told me her balance in her checkbook. I knew her rent check has not cleared yet, but still didn't match taking that into account. Then she said she had already written her social security deposit in her checkbook, even though it won't go in her bank until next Wednesday. Ok, good. Then we match. She also has her credit card bill (with same bank) due on the 19th, that she is going to need more money in her account to cover (it was her rent/move in fee for her new apartment charged it it). So, while we were online together I transferred most of her savings balance over to checking. I told her next week, we'll have to do a big transfer from her retirement account to get her regular savings and checking back up, so she at least has like 6 months living expenses in there and not have to keep transferring money. She understood.

I logged into her email this morning to get rid of the spam stuff and see last evening she must have tried to log into her retirement account and didn't do that right, as she got an email that she was locked out. I'm guessing since it was like 8:30 my time, she didn't want to bother me again with it. I'm not sure how to make these log in's any easier for her to figure out. The retirement account one is tricky now, because they have recently added another layer, where they will text or call you a passcode. I'm sure that one threw her for a loop. I'm not sure now she will ever remember/figure out how to log into that now.

And speaking of her dang retirement account. Almost a month ago they said she had to send in writing to get the phone number contacts changed on the online part. That was the weekend DD went and visited, had her sign it, and DD mailed it. This isn't an account we need to watch all the time (like her checking). I just like to log in like once a month and see how it's doing. I went to log in last week and the dang phone numbers are still my step brothers. Even though they changed the email contact from him to me. I emailed again, saying the letter they requested to change to my phone numbers was mailed on March 9th. Has that been received? Please let us know if there is anything else we need to to do get these phone numbers changed, so that I can access her account online. It does me no good to log in, then they want to choose one of the phone numbers from the list to text or call. It's too much of a hassle to have to then call my mom and tell her to then hang back up. Her phone is going to ring, with a recording giving her a passcode, write it down. Then call me back. You get the picture! It just needs to also have my phone number! Geez, how hard is it to change?! I got no reply back Thursday afternoon or Friday. But, Saturday morning I decided to check and they did change them to my cell and home # now. How hard would it have been to send a quick email back stating this got done? Kind of ticks me off. But, anyway her accounts look good, all things considered with the stock market. I'm sure he has most of her money in lower risk things, at her age.

I'm sure when I talk to her today, I'll be using it again, to help her log into her retirement account. At least one of the things SB did while he was in charge was set it up so she could transfer money from that savings account to her regular checking. Before, my mom would always have to call them to do a transfer.