Dear Schwab: Keep your hands off my PC

I just got a notice from Schwab. They want me to change my overall Quicken software password to match the account password that's on their servers, or my capability to download data from Schwab into Quicken will stop working.

This is terrible. First of all, I use Quicken to access more than one Schwab account, and they have different passwords. I don't want them to be the same. Secondly, I don't want Schwab to have my Quicken password. If, by some strange event, they get my Quicken data file, they would have access to it. Furthermore, if some other bank also wants me to synchronize my passwords, and they have different password rules, it is possible that I wouldn't be able to access both. Or if I could, I'd then have the same password across Schwab, another bank, and my Qucken file. This would make my data less secure.

There's a reason I have a different password on my two Schwab accounts, and there's also a reason my Quicken password is different from those. I'm fine with financial institutions that set their own password rules. But it's not their purview to set the rules on my personal software.

I talked to Schwab tech support, and they say they are doing this for "convenience." Personally, I am more than willing to deal with a little inconvenience to maintain the security of my personal finances and of active trading accounts. I'm stunned that Schwab doesn't get this.