I’ve read a lot here re: frustration over the new THS policies. I agree, new policies when one is already comfortable can be problematic, the new fees being one of them. It appears that people are annoyed enough with being charged new fees in addition to the yearly membership fee, that they are jumping ship. Another, one even more annoying to me, is finding out that they are ‘jumping aboard’ with other sites, forcing 2 factor authentication. I can’t tell you how much trouble that onerous tech feature has caused me and I’ve tried to get companies to see how problematic it can be for some of us, to no avail. It appears that once one of these tech features gets rolling, no one can get it to stop. As for this one, as a frequent traveler, it proves to be more problematic than helpful. ex: If I am travelling and attempting to log in to one site that is forcing me to ‘2 factor’ and send me a code to my email, while I have been unable to access the email for the code because the email itself is requiring a 2 factor code, which I can’t access because…and it goes on. Sometimes old-school is better; in this case we have passwords, let’s continue to use them and stop forcing us to jump through hoops with no way out. And before someone mentions using a smartphone…some of us who prefer ‘old school’ opt out of those as well. It’s enough to make one want to jump ship and swim to a small, off grid island and stay. Can you tell I like boats? If you agree, please send them a message, like I have, asking them to forgo this new ‘feature’ before it gets started. If you don’t agree, please don’t respond with negative ‘advice’.
@Calebsmum, you correctly note that THS has introduced quite a few “improvements” to its technology platform over recent whiles.
Ironically, we advocated for the introduction of 2FA technology on the basis that it was a mature technology. THS implementation was, at best, poor. Sorry to hear that you are still struggling.
Unfortunately 2FA has been around for more than a decade now and we don’t see it being removed, regardless of THS. Personally, we’d encourage that you find a good password manager or 2FA manager.
1Password or ProtonPass offer good password managers, though there are others. Such apps tend to address username, password and 2FA code for each website. Sounds like that may help you.
Travelling might be an awful lot easier with a smartphone, one where you could download and store boarding cards, receive notifications about which carousel you’re hold baggage will arrive on, gate changes etc. There are even some airlines in Europe that no longer allow printed boarding passes. Life will just get more difficult without a smart phone. You can only swim against the tide for so long.
It may also be that in order to obtain cyber insurance THS has had to introduce 2FA.
I note your final comment, but asking for different views to be withheld isn’t how forums work.
I’m a lil confused how people joining other sites is forcing 2FA…? or maybe I read it wrong; it’s late 
Anyway, I also find it a PITA to have to sign in to multiple e-mails to get some stupid code.
And yeah, get a smartphone and do everything on it, which is OK for a while until whichever app/site/whatever decides your phone is too old for them and their app stops working and then what, you’re supposed to spend another few hundred bucks on a new one? I looked at iphone prices a while ago when my bank app quit working and was appalled. A thousand bucks for a new model and then you drop it or sit on it and oops it’s dead. F that, goodbye bank app.
I don’t think anybody requiring 2FA is going back to not requiring it though. That’s the world we live in.
Can I share half of the off-grid island with you…?
I in know way expect views to be withheld, I am open to hearing them, when they are delivered in a respectful, kind manner. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been the case here. Which is why I added “negative advice”. I hear you, and you are correct that it might be easier, however I have chosen to not be one of the many who has been ‘sucked in’ by the efforts to take over our society with these, and other, technologies. When I look around and see how many people have no time or attention for anyone around them because it’s captivated by the phone in their hand…enough. Our desire for easy, convenient, fast, has led us into a scary place. We managed for decades without them just fine, they just have us thinking we can’t now. 
Yeah, I think you misread it. 
I was just starting out by pointing out THS implementations that are annoying. And yes, anyone who wants to escape may certainly join. We’ll celebrate being free at last. 
I agree that there are many that seem to be glued to their phones and I dislike it intently when someone I’m with is seemingly more interested in their Insta feed than a conversation. But, the usefulness of a smartphone far outweighs the pitfalls, at least for me. This morning I’m going hiking, I’m in a country where my knowledge of the language is good enough for the basics, but not much more. The translation app is wonderful for smoothing what could otherwise be difficult. I also have my travel pass, my hiking app, WhatThreeWords and the camera.
15 years ago it would have been just the camera and you would have been just fine.
Yes, I hate the two step thing also. I really cannot see the pointy. Not as if your bank account or anything. Can’t imagine anybody sterallin a house sit. But I now no longer log out, which means I can get in emmediately wiothout the two step thing. However it does every few weeks log me out and I have to use the 2 step thingy again. But then ok for a few weeks, if I don’t log out.
The point of 2FA is to secure your account. Many people use poor and insecure passwords, often refusing the same password for multiple accounts. 2FA helps to prevent unauthorised access.
Every piece of data that can be gathered about you increases vulnerability to attacks and scams. Too many people think it won’t happen to me, I have nothing worth stealing.
“To scammers, small pieces of personal data are like puzzle pieces. Even isolated details—such as a pet’s name, your job title, or a recent purchase—are highly valuable. Fraudsters stitch these fragments together to build highly convincing profiles or use them as bypasses for security checks.”
yes, me too. What I hate the most is that all of these mandatory tech implementations, everywhere, just imply that we can’t make our own decisions. There’s no ‘opt out’, which, to me, is getting scary. They are directing and we’re supposed to follow.
but we shouldn’t be forced into these tech implementations; we should be allowed, especially since they are our accounts, to make our own choices on the matter. ‘they’ don’t want us doing that.
One reason for mandatory 2FA is to protect brand reputation. Perhaps it’s also cheaper to have no opt out mechanism.