Hi there. This post is more of a blog post describing my phone call experience with a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) agent. The Canada Revenue Agency is a part of the Government of Canada. It is tax return season for us Canadians until the end of April 2021. I needed to access my Canada Revenue Agency account in order to retrieve certain information for my 2020 tax return. The problem was that my account was locked after failing the security questions. It is because I forgot some of the answers 😞 or did not get them correct. I had to make a call to the CRA.
This blog-style post provides some insights and tips based on my call with a CRA agent. This information would be beneficial to fellow Canadians.
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Wait Times Are Long Due To Overwhelming Requests
The CRA right now is facing a lot of requests making the wait times long. Requests include tax-related topics, business information, payroll service and online account requests. There are extended hours right now to meet this increased demand. The phone availability hours are Monday to Friday 9AM to 9PM and Saturdays 9AM to 5PM local time.
There are modified hours for Good Friday April 2 and Easter Monday April 5 with hours from 9AM to 5PM. Saturday is closed.
I made my call at around 9 AM EST today (April 1 Thursday) and waited about 1 hour and 15 minutes to finally speak with an agent. My previous attempts in the last few days were not successful was probably cause I gave up after waiting 20 to 30 minutes for an agent. Patience is a virtue I suppose.
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Having Stuff Ready
It is helpful for you and for the agent to have certain items and key pieces of information ready. Items include your Social Insurance Number (SIN), name, date of birth, address information, banking details for payroll and a 2019 tax return. The banking details verification part somewhat surprised me as I had to find a past cheque which had the transit number, institution number and account number.
I do recommend doing the phone call with an agent on speakerphone so you don't have the wait and hold your phone for long. In addition, taking the call in front of your computer is nice as you may need to find key information from digital files and for checking if your login works after the agent unlocks your account.
The male CRA agent I had was friendly, professional and helpful.
After mentioning that my account got locked as I did not answer the security questions correctly after successful logins, the agent guided me through steps online. I was provided a temporary code for logging in to my CRA account. This gave access to my online account with limited features. I will receive a security code in the mail in order for me to have full access to my account. With full access to my account, I can obtain whatever information I need for my 2020 tax return.
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Concluding Thoughts
The waiting was painful. I do recommend that you do reading or some sort of web browsing on the computer to pass the time. My request was to have my account fixed. I would not know if those with more complicated requests with regards to their CRA account would wait more or less.
My call was in the early morning and I had wait a bit. Not sure if wait times would be shorter if I called later in the morning or at 8:30 PM.
Once you get with an agent, things run smoothly from my experience.
Do save your security questions and answers along with login details!
For those who need to contact the CRA for any online issues, do it ASAP. Don't wait!
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