Dear LPG,

I have been using my computer for a while and, in spite of the fact that many others think them basic tasks, I am proud to be able to say that I have an email account and do some shopping on line too. 

I read somewhere on your site about the importance of having different passwords for different accounts, and I have always observed that rule, but nearly every time I go to a new online shop or visit a web site these days it appears that you have to register and this involves a password.  The big problem is that I am getting older and my memory is not as good as it used to be.

We have all heard the advice about never writing them down and changing them regularly which makes the problem even worse really, and I strongly believe that if you are going to keep them listed on your phone or computer you really need to know what you are doing.    I know that there a now quite a few mobile phone apps that are designed to keep them safe and you can also make a list of them in a password protected Microsoft Word or Excel file on your lap top, but that is very complicated when you are only as proficient as I am, and I am frightened of getting them locked away from myself.  So I have come up with another solution.

It is important to have them somewhere apart from in our heads because some of them only get used every now and then and I find that it is the ones that we don’t use often that we forget. 

I have an address book, even though I don’t need to write my friends phone numbers down because I have a mobile phone. I have arranged it so that my passwords are all mixed up with the names and numbers of my friends.  It is also important not to put the name of the related company in the book next to the password.  But there is usually a phrase or word that gives a very personal hint that only you would associate with the password account.  For instance if I had an account with Sainsbury’s (which I don’t) I would file the password under Jenny Bell because I and a friend called Jenny spent a really memorable morning shopping at the Bell Green branch. 

That is what I do, but it does not have to be an address list.  The most important thing is that you don’t label it with an obvious tag such as ‘PASSWORD LIST’ and have a few added bits of useless or unrelated information included.  The secret is to keep it cryptic. 

In the light of all the information I have given I have asked LPG to keep me more anonymous than usual but hope that my suggestion helps a few other readers.

 XX, Lewisham

LPG found some information on the apps that XX was referring to and also some other online suggestions

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