Question: Can we still change our direct deposit for Social Security over the phone or not? I called the 1-800 number, but the recording was so quick I couldn’t understand. I am moving to North Carolina to live with my daughter and want to switch to a bank where I will be living.
Answer: Yes, but only if you have the online access needed to complete the multifactor identity verification this phone service now requires. The Social Security Administration says on its website, “Beginning April 28, 2025, you can change your direct deposit by calling 1-800-772-1213. Before you call, go to ssa.gov/PIN to get a one-time code that you will give to the Social Security representative. To generate the code, you will need to sign in to or create a personal ‘my Social Security’ account. If you are unable to create an account, you will need to come into a local Social Security office or arrange for direct deposit through your bank.”
If you don’t have an online account, go to ssa.gov for instructions on how to create one. With an account, you may be able to change your direct deposit information wholly online, without having to call, according to the website.
Callers to SSA’s national customer service line are greeted with a brief recorded message about how to change where their electronic payments are deposited.
Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy for the Center on Budget Priorities, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, wrote that the Social Security Administration estimates that half the people SSA has traditionally served solely over the phone to complete this task won’t be able to follow the new rules and will have to go to a Social Security office if they ever need to update their direct-deposit information.
“The new PIN code requirement will be impossible for many beneficiaries to meet. Many seniors and people with disabilities lack internet service, computers or smartphones, or the technological savvy to navigate SSA’s online services. The PIN requirement expects callers to complete a multi-step, multi- factor authentication and generate a PIN code while on the phone with an agent. Or if they don’t have an account, they must hang up, establish an online account, then call back — a not-insignificant inconvenience when most callers to SSA do not reach an agent on the first try, and the wait time for a call back from SSA averages 2.5 hours,” she wrote Friday at 808ne.ws/3EXMgDo.
Q: I went through the San Francisco airport last weekend with a very long TSA line. The person checking IDs kept trying to read my Real ID Hawaii driver’s license. He said it wasn’t a Real ID. When I pointed out the yellow star, he said the IDs from Hawaii had so many holograms on them that they don’t work in their machine.
A: We can’t vouch for his description of the problem’s source, but security scanners at certain U.S. airports have had trouble with some Hawaii-issued credentials over the years, which we most recently wrote about in 2022 (808ne.ws/4m58zI6). Software patches installed on Transportation Security Administration machines largely resolved the problem, a state Department of Transportation spokesperson said then. In addition, at least one batch of Hawaii credentials was printed with a bar-code error, making that batch unreadable.
We shared your message with Harold Nedd, spokesperson for Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services, asking whether this problem was still occurring and whether there are plans to redesign Hawaii’s REAL IDs to make them more compatible with TSA scanners. Here’s his emailed response:
“Anecdotally, the city’s Department of Customer Services has received a handful of complaints about some state driver’s licenses not properly scanning at TSA checkpoints.
“There’s a Real ID software update underway to solve this issue. This particular card production irregularity will not exist in the new hardware and software for processing driver’s licenses and state ID cards when the state-of-the-art technology is implemented in early 2026.
“In the meantime, driver licensing centers in the City and County of Honolulu have a process in place to assist cardholders who run into this particular issue at TSA checkpoints. Cardholders are allowed to replace the driver’s license with the irregularity at no cost to them. Additionally, no appointment is required to get a duplicate replacement. Simply show up at a driver licensing center and let the concierge in the lobby know that the driver’s license did not properly scan at the TSA checkpoint. Finally, turn in the driver’s license with the irregularity and get a duplicate replacement in return.”
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
