Pin Numbers/Log In IDs/Passwords - what's your system?

[Earlybird]

It seems that most everything online, or that involves making a purchase, requires an ID, pin number and/or password. I need to streamline/simplify my system, as I've now got far too many numbers/IDs to remember.

They say not to choose something too obvious that could be guessed by an unscrupulous person trying to gain access. I have done that, but use that combination for most things now and if it was ever compromised, I'd be in trouble as it would allow whoever entry into most everything. We're also told not to write the codes down in case someone finds them. Sometimes, when I try to guess/remember what I've chosen (especially on secure sites), I fumble around until I'm locked out of the system and the password needs to be completely reset after a conversation with a person to verify who I am.

I've got far too many numbers/letters swirling around in my head, and it's getting impossible to keep up with them all! Anyone else have this problem? Who's got a good,simple system they'd be willing to share?

No suggestions - but I'm the same

I had so many I kept getting them wrong. Now I have 3 passwords and everytime register somewhere I use one of them. You usually have at least 3 chances to get your password right so I know that I will get it right before I am locked out.

I use a favourite quotation, take the first letter of each word, and substitute a number if possible, so you end up with what looks like a senseless jumble of numbers and letters. 'To be or not to be, that is the question' would come out as 2bon2bt1tq. 'Show me the way to go home = 5mtw2gh. Works well for me and no-one else can guess it.

I use the same password for everything and anyone who knows me would guess it in a second but I'm sick of being locked out of sites because I have a sieve for a brain

Eemie - that's quite a system you've got there, and you're certainly right that no one could ever guess a pattern!

You should have been a spy, or a person who sends/decodes secret messages for the military! (I'm assuming you're neither!)

I am now down to being able to use only 2 cards since I have no idea what the Pin nos are for the rest, it's a right pita. I have a random number sequence for passwords but I need to start recording them all somewhere too. On websites I haven't visited for a while I usually have to ask them to email me a reminder.

I use the same method as Eemie - it's commonly recommended by security professionals (DH is one). You don't want to use a popular quote though, take the first line of an obscure favourite poem.

Another password I use is a friend's postcode from another country. From an address he used to have.

I do still have too many passwords, and yet too few. I'm thinking about combining Eemie's method with something referring to the site, to vary the password a bit, so that someone hacking one account wouldn't get into all of them. For example, if you were using "to be or not to be, that is the question" (2bon2bt1tq), for hotmail, you could put an h at the beginning (or the end). (Or use an i, as that's one letter after h, or use a j, as that's one before. Lots of options.)

I write down the pins for my credit cards randomly inserted another number like dh's birth date. eg if dh's birth date was 12/11/72 (it isn't btw) and the pin for my credit card is 2492 (also isn't) then I would write 1221491722. If I need to jog my memory then I can mentally remove all the digits that relate to dh's birth date and what's left is my pin, but it's very unlikely that anyone stealing my handbag would be able to work it out.

Eemie's and NQC's suggestion about quotations is fab, I must start changing all my online passwords to that system.