I f*cking hate it when programs force you to change your password
 

CCbill comes to mind but now AWEmpire also starts with this shit. Just let me keep my old passwords. I have (had) a system for passwords, now it's all messed up.

Damn it!

Drives me crazy and causes me to use less secure passwords.

Exactly, or it forces you to write them down which is a security no-no.

With CCBill, I just switch back & forth between 2 of them. This way, if one doesn't work, the other will :)

And dump those chumps & get with a REAL webcam program |fonz|

Yeah, CCBill is a pain but you can use 2, as Greenie says. Not a program, but the worse by far is iTunes. You can't use the same password for a year!

I send them about 10 hits a period but I got one active porn surfer there that has already spent over $5k on chatting with webcam models over the last 1.5 years. I get 20% of that :)

The worst is when a sponsor goes from for example verotel to nats, and you have to signup for a new account and change all linkingcodes (cause they will stop work soon)

The password changing is for your benefit though honestly.

http://keepass.info/

Get with it

Coming from a program owners POV not an affiliate...

The only reason any company needs to ask it's clients to keep changing passwords is to make up for their own lax security. If you are using an affiliate of any program that does this, only ever accept payment via cheque, never by wire transfer or Paxum etc. Sending money to you via methods like those requires you to give them more information than is safe to give to a company with such poor Internet security that they have to ask you to keep changing passwords.

I just change the last letter in the password - start with "a" and when they ask to change it, change the suffix letter to "b" etc.

Anyone and anything can be hacked - changing passwords regularly is part of any decent security protocol.

No it's not. If you are forced to repeatedly change your password you eventually have to write it down (as Toby said). You also end up running out of ideas and using things you would not normally even consider using (eg mother's maiden name).

The main reason companies insist on this is to cover up their own mistakes. When someone hacks their system and gains access to their clients because they were not secure enough they can defend themselves with "It is not our fault, it is your fault. What do you expect to happen if you use such an insecure password/write your passwords down." If they are asking, in advance, for you to "give them an excuse", they already know that their security is shit. Why would anyone even consider giving sensitive information to a company like this?

However, even worse, are those companies who are not doing to cover themselves but because they genuinely believe it is a good idea. They have read posts like yours, and without thinking it through have implemented it as policy. Basically they are idiots who have no idea about real security, and are basing their security policies on "something they read on the Internet". They are well meaning and think they are doing the right thing, but that is no consolation when some Russian hacker gets hold of your bank details from hacking them, and steals all your savings.