in the end, they refused to log me into the account because they couldn't get me on the phone, but they did confirm that the account has not been logged into in months (years?) and agreed to close it for me.
the situation was just silly. they called my voice mail and left me a message - i even forwarded them the recording. i then called the number that showed up on the display feature, and left them a message. they asked for id, and i gave them a canadian health card. my login credentials were correct.
they had absolutely no grounds to suspect i was anybody other than the account holder, but that wasn't the point; the point was to associate the bank account with a phone number, and when they couldn't do it, they just cut the cord.
i would have liked to log in and delete the account information first, and then close the account after - no doubt a meaningless formality, but the best i could likely actually do in deleting the information from their servers. as it is, the account is probably not permanently deleted, and the file probably persists. all i probably actually did was remove my ability to edit it.
but, i can't access it, anyways. so, what's the point?
i'm very poor and don't have access to the newest technology, but i'm pretty technical, and there's no doubt in my mind that they weren't keeping me out for security reasons - there's far too many contradictions here for that.
so, i'd advise you stay away from this company; this is a front group for an intelligence apparatus, and what they're trying to do is connect your phone to your bank account.