Welcome to Medicare School Daily, where we help you understand Medicare, save money,
avoid mistakes, and above all else, get the most out of your Medicare benefits.
Now, today's topic is how to create a MySSA.gov account. If you're getting ready to go Medicare
or on Social Security or both of those, you are going to need a MySSA.gov account. So
I'm going to show you a very easy 10 steps that will help you to set up this account.
Number one, you will go to SSA.gov, and over here you'll see where it says sign in or sign
up. So if you already have a username and password, you would sign in. But if you do
not, you're going to sign up. So you'll click on that button, and that's going to take you
to an option where you can actually set up a MySSA.gov account. This block here is for
attorneys and for other businesses. That's for other government type services. So this
is the one you want to click on, the MySSA. And then once you've done that, you're going
to then create an account and so you'll put here create account. Now, again, if you already
have one, you'll put your username and password there. But if you do not, we'll let them know
that we're going to create an account. And we'll have to of course agree to the terms
of the service; you'll push next. And then it takes us a step number five. Here we're
going to give them some personal information: your name, your Social Security number, your
date of birth, and your address.
Now, this next part is very, very important. They're going to ask you a question if you
would like to add extra security. And it says this, you may add an extra level of security
to your account by entering an upgrade code that we will send you in the mail. And so
my advice to you is, I would say, no, you do not need an extra level of security. I
believe this is a very secure site anyways. And if you decide that you want that, what's
going to happen is you're basically done setting things up now. They're going to send you a
letter in the mail, is going to take about a week to get that. and then you can start
this process again. But again, if I were doing this for myself, I would definitely say no.
They want to do that later. So we're going to assume you're going to say no. That's going
to take us to step number six. Now, this is also very important. What's happened now that
we've given our name, our address, our date of birth, and Social Security. This system
is going to go and actually grab five credit questions from a credit bureau, usually Expirian
or Equifax. And those five credit questions are going to be related to mortgages, automobile
loans or leases, and credit cards. Five credit questions. And those credit questions are
going to go something like this.
In fact, I just want to read this one word for word for you. It says, Your credit file
indicates that you may have a mortgage loan that was open in or around, and picks a date
in this example, December, who is the credit provider for this account? And what they'll
do is they'll list four different institutions. And then one of the options will be none of
the above. And then the second question has to do about that mortgage. It says, what is
the total monthly payment for the above-referenced account? And it gives you some ranges for
that payment. Two hundred to three hundred, 300 to 400, 500 to 600, those options. And
then again, none of the above. And so we have five credit questions, mortgages, automobile
loans or leases, or credit cards. And so what I want you to realize is that it could be
that one of the answers here is none of the above. So it's fine if you answer none of
the above, if indeed that's the answer. But if you go through all five credit questions,
and they're all none of the above, what that means is those credit questions are not yours.
You either have personally locked your credit down, or you're part of some kind of a credit
breach and your credit has been locked down for you. And if that's the case where you
answered none of the above to all the questions, you will not proceed beyond this point.
What you'll need to do is you'll need to call your local security office and let them know
that you tried to set up an SSA.gov account, but you could not because of the credit situation.
And what they'll do, they'll give you an alternative method for setting up that SSA.gov account.
OK? And just call them and they'll tell you exactly what you need to do to walk you through
a different process. So I'm assuming for today's video you're able to answer at least one or
two, maybe three, or all these questions accurately. And if you've answered them accurately, then
what's going to happen is you would push next, and that's going to take you to the place
where now you can set up your username and password. The username will be eight digits,
and it's not case sensitive, but the password, again, eight digits at least, and it is going
to be case sensitive. So on the rules for your password, you have to have a letter that
would be capital, a letter that would be a small lowercase. You'll have to have a number
and as well as a symbol. And of course, it's a total of eight. But you've got to have at
least all of those components in there for your password. And again, of course, write
these down, and then you'll re-enter your password. And then they'll ask you three security
questions like what is the model of your first car or where did you meet your spouse? Those
kinds of questions, in case you ever need to reset your password, you'll be able to
answer those questions.
So we've established your username, we've established a password, we've answered the
security questions, and of course, then we're going to push next.
Now, that's going to take us to a very important screen. And what they're doing now is they're
getting this your files set up for a passcode. So every time you try to go in and look at
your Social Security record, your Medicare records, you're going to go through this process
of signing in and they're going to send you an eight-digit access code. And what we're
doing here is we're telling them how you want to receive that eight-digit code. Do you want
to receive it either through email or through a text? We highly recommend having them text
it to you. I've been with literally hundreds of people who had it e-mailed to them, and
it just so happens when they need access their email server was down. They didn't have access
to their emails. They forgot a password or something. And so it's very frustrating. So
it's easier to say text. Most of us today carry our cell phones. And so tell them to
text that to you.
So you push text here, and you'll put your cell number in and you'd push next. And then
what's going to happen is they're going to actually send you that eight-digit code. That
eight-digit code is good for ten minutes. So every time you get access to your records,
this process is going to be followed. And again, this code is going to appear, but it's
only good for 10 minutes. And so you would actually type that eight-digit code in there.
And then that takes you to the final step, which is now the account is set up. All right?
And so those are the ten steps. So, again, every time you come in, you're going to have
to have this eight-digit code. You'll enter it in. And now you can get access to your
record for Social Security or for your Medicare. Now, for those of you that are going to start
Medicare now. Now you're ready to enroll in Medicare, you can do this online. And so if
you need help either setting up the SSA.gov account or Medicare, our Medicare guides will
actually walk you through this whole process. So if you attempt this and run into any complications,
do not hesitate to let a Medicare school guide walk you through it. We do it every day, and
it would be our privilege to help you through this process as well. Thanks for watching.