Comments on: Limitation of American Express password drives (at least) one person crazy

By: Ovidiu Todoran

Ovidiu Todoran — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:51:33 +0000

I am at a loss understanding the limitation that AmEx has for maximum 8 characters (and no special characters).
I have a password that’s longer then their 8 characters and it annoys me a lot that I cannot use my “formula” because some dinosaur at AmEx thinks that a password longer then 8 chars is not secure. What a shame!

By: David Rosskopf

David Rosskopf — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:12:07 +0000

I disagree with this %100. I have an american express account, and it annoys me to no end that I can’t use the password I want to use because its to long. Every other financial institution lets you put in long passwords if you have one, why shouldn’t American Express? Not only that, i can’t add any level of complication. I like to have one complex password that I memorize and use for all applications. Applications by nature should not slap our hands because we like to be more secure and protected.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:20:34 +0000

Makes perfect sense. Most of the time when I tell me people I have an 18 character password they look at me like I’m an alien.

Well know that passwords should be gotten rid of and moved on with multi-factor authentication. One day….

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:56:36 +0000

I suppose there is merit in the argument that there is no reason for an arbitrary limit on password length but it doesn’t affect most people… I was sort of having fun with it too… just the opposite position if that makes sense…

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:29:02 +0000

You are 100% correct that is isn’t going to get fixed. You are also correct that people like to use short, easy to remember passwords. It just so happens for me that my “Easy to remember passwords” are 11-18 characters in length on average. The reality is that there is no reason for an arbitrary maximum of 8 characters.

Also, I was just having fun with this and “ranting” at Am Ex. I’m honestly surprised this article made it to the front page of Digg – let alone top 10.