This is whats wrong with my bank...(my wishlist)

Feedback & Ideas
1

Password / Security
“it must contain uppercase, lowercase, a number, a special character and you can only enter it when doing a secret dance while singing the national anthem of mars etc”

My head is full! In between the regular cycle of being forced to change passwords for multiple systems at work on a frequent basis. There’s also one required for practically everything you use… Anywhere you shop, any services or utilities places. (out of interest just how secret is a secret place , mothers maiden name or memorable place if everyone you deal with knows and asks for it anyway). Not forgetting its then some crazy mental arithmetic challenge of telling character 1,5 and 27 of your 53 digit answer to question 400.

I’m tired of my current bank demanding different passwords for apps’ online, telephone banking login’s, extra login devices etc mastercard secure/verify by visa. Give it a rest! I have no more memory capacity to remember passwords for everything across all devices. Stop bloody locking me out!

Real Time Banking
My life doesn’t disconnect at midnight Friday to reappear midnight Monday – unless it’s a bank holiday or it chooses to run a payment system early - in which case midnight Tuesday. I also still carry about my business at Christmas, New Year, Easter and other bank skiving days too. Banking is all machines anyway so it should work 24/7. Payments, transfers, deposits, card payments should show instantly not three days later. Contactless payments should show instantly.

Payments shouldn’t ever hit the account as “mysterious debit card transaction which we’ll bother to get round naming in a few days”. Maybe i’d be more likely to remember where i’d used it if my head wasnt about to launch itself into space when it explodes from the pressure of too many pointless passwords! Also i didn’t spend £1 on petrol on Monday and that should be fairly obvious because A) i have a car because i need to travel more then a couple of meters and B) the machine says minimum delivery 2L - so unless we are pricing petrol at the last time you updated your computer system its safe to say i’ve spent more than £1 - i literally cant figure why it takes about a week to fathom.

Debit Card Design
If I have more then one account with the same bank I get sent an identical card – thanks it’s really helpful when I pay for the morning coffee with money that is due to pay my phone bill direct debit instead. I’m not even asking to put my own pictures on - i’d just like something a bit more high tech then defacing it with a marker pen. Is it that difficult to offer a red card or a blue card or a green card?

Contact the bank via the app
I don’t want to ring you, I don’t want to go into the branch. I don’t want you to write to me (can a letter can not be intercepted just as much as an email? - just saying!). Let me send you a message with whatever I need to ask you about and reply – and reply the same day not in a week.

Push Notifications
No I don’t want to sign up for text alerts to tell me about the out of date balance you hold. I want to wake up and know my wages have gone in or my flatmate has sent me the twenty quid they borrowed or my direct debits are gone and I can spend everything left.

Apple Pay & Touch ID
Because its easy

A feedback button
So when I come across something not working I can tell you and you can fix it. I don’t want to jump through a burning hoop to tell you since I downloaded iOS 9.2.3.2.3.2 that I cant click the red button anymore….

iPad / Computer logon
I’m down for the app which is how i do 90% of banking - but it would be good to be able to check the balance on the iPad or computer.

Failed Transaction = We’ll steal your money for 5 days.
On the rare occasion i’ve been a grade A secret squirrel and remembered all the passwords and decided to buy myself something pretty - it all goes wrong at the checkout and my card gets pre authorised but the transaction fails. It tells me to try again and then does the same again. My money is effectively stolen for 5 days and because its 3 days before payday i have to live like a hobo until i’m paid of the money is returned!

That’s the way it’s always been / The crap attitude
Which is why banking generally sucks, is so behind the times and why i pretty much hate most of the banks i’ve dealt with.

Thats what makes me want a better bank for starters anyway!

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2

I can pretty much subscribe 100% with your comment.

I’ve always thought that I find much harder to manage my money in this country because of how bad the banking system works. Delayed transactions, coming up randomly 5 days later and then appearing on your statement with the wrong name and date.

Previously with my Spanish bank, debit transactions would appear within seconds and I always knew how much money I was spending almost in real time.

Here in the UK you have the “current balance” “last night’s balance” and whatever Balance you have before pending transactions show up. You never know or they make it harder to know. You think you have £100 left? Wrong. We haven’t charged you the £60 on petrol that you actually filled up a week ago. Because, you know, “offline” transactions.

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3

I absolutely agree with all of these. Why can’t banks be fast, efficient, easy to get in touch with and easy to see how much money you have/used to have?

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In regards to the payments not going through on bank holidays etc it’s not down to just one bank. It would need a full change in the industry every bank would need to change

5

I’d settle for them paying my standing orders or direct debits on time - say ones due to go on the 1st which happens to be a Saturday. They decide the computer couldn’t possibly turn up to work on a weekend so instead decide two days later is much better for this and instead they send it on the 3rd :roll_eyes:

And I’d happily make them all change the lazy outdated industry could do with a shake up.

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6

All Direct debits do go out on time, if a direct debt is due to go out on a day that happens to be a bank holiday then the industry standard dictates that it would go out on the next working day, which normally is the next day. Remember that all direct debits are covered by the direct debit guarantee meaning that if you are out of pocket because of a direct debit failure then your bank will reimburse you

7

It’s not about being out of pocket and if it was industry standard then all banks would do the same - some banks earmark the funds over a weekend and others don’t. See the differences between Tesco, Lloyds and HSBC as an example.

The point i’m making is there’s no reason it can’t go on any day because a computer is making the payment not a person. So if I have a bill due to go on the 1st then it should go on the 1st not days later and you won’t convince me otherwise! When it doesn’t it’s not an accurate reflection of the status of the account during the times they decide to give up and stop working. If I’m paying for something I want it out and accounted for exactly when I authorise and expect it to be not waiting days to play catchup!

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8

I’ve given up on this and got my hands on 1Password for iOS - it’s free at the moment, can generate passwords according to rules, and has a reveal password in large type option which is perfect for my tired old eyes :eyeglasses:

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9

Yeah, it’s great - you can generate 50 char random passwords…

Apart from on stupid sites that won’t let you paste… (Are you listening noddle?)

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I wasn’t referring to weekends I was referring to bank holidays, the weekends are normally covered by faster payments. I know that all LBG brands are, so If you send a payment or are to recieve one on a saturday or sunday, they will go out then

11

A few thoughts:

Use a password manager. It’s important to use different passwords, because the more websites you use a single password on, the more likely it is that one of the websites will get hacked and your password will be stolen. All websites should practice good password security but sadly they don’t. Having said that, I don’t understand “Enter the 3rd, 8th, and last digit of your password” - that’s really annoying and I don’t see how it improves security (feel free to say I’m an idiot and it’s obvious though!).

That’s not the bank’s fault. This usually happens because you used pay at pump - a £1 authorisation is put on your card to check it’s genuine and active, then a day or two later the petrol station asks your bank for the full amount of money. Your bank has no idea how much the petrol station will ask for until they ask for it - what would you suggest that they should show? There are a few sensible ideas, but personally I think showing that it’s a £1 authorisation is the most transparent (and therefore best) option.

For more information on how authorisations work and how transactions are posted, see Mondo’s excellent blog post on the “three second sandwich”.

This is what Dymo labels are for! Personally I think this is an additional unnecessary layer of complexity. Having said that, I think banks should offer to create plain (white) cards, (optionally) embossed, which you can then print / have printed yourself.

I don’t believe Apple Pay is particularly easy for banks to sign up to - but honestly I’m not sure. I’m working on the assumption that if it was easy Mondo would’ve done it by now.

This is one of the things I find (slightly - there’s an API so I can solve my own problem!) frustrating with Mondo - I also prefer to bank on my computer as opposed to my phone. That, and HTML5 makes everything easy - after all, nearly all devices now have a standards compliant web browser available!

If I’ve said anything crazy / misunderstood something feel free to call me out!

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The “Freeze card” feature seems to be the most simple and powerful to me. I haven’t had to use it yet, but it’s good to know that if I were to lose my card, all I need to do is open the app to stop it.

Compare this with my other bank accounts, I’d have to figure out what number to call, pass security checks over the phone, which is always frustrating, and then finally get someone else to stop it for me.

After a quick Google search, I can only find that Discover offer a “freeze via app” feature. Surely there’s little stopping other banks copying (for the greater good!). Kudos Mondo!

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“Use a password manager. It’s important to use different passwords, because the more websites you use a single password on, the more likely it is that one of the websites will get hacked and your password will be stolen. All websites should practice good password security but sadly they don’t. Having said that, I don’t understand “Enter the 3rd, 8th, and last digit of your password” - that’s really annoying and I don’t see how it improves security (feel free to say I’m an idiot and it’s obvious though!).”

I think some password managers actually breach some banks T&C’s - your not allowed to share it with anyone / anywhere etc. Besides i still dont think this is thought out in a user friendly way and it doesn’t solve the issue of when you call etc.

"That’s not the bank’s fault. This usually happens because you used pay at pump - a £1 authorisation is put on your card to check it’s genuine and active, then a day or two later the petrol station asks your bank for the full amount of money. Your bank has no idea how much the petrol station will ask for until they ask for it - what would you suggest that they should show? There are a few sensible ideas, but personally I think showing that it’s a £1 authorisation is the most transparent (and therefore best) option.
For more information on how authorisations work and how transactions are posted, see Mondo’s excellent blog post on the “three second sandwich”.

It is the banks fault because they allow it - they could resolve it by updating their systems like mondo or by insisting that the amount is reported - but the issue is that it suits them as people might accidentally go overdrawn and then they can charge. I have read 3 second sandwich and it just shows it pretty much can be done.

“This is what Dymo labels are for! Personally I think this is an additional unnecessary layer of complexity. Having said that, I think banks should offer to create plain (white) cards, (optionally) embossed, which you can then print / have printed yourself.”

Or the bank could just give me a different card :slight_smile: Look at virgin pick a colour red, black pink etc. Barclays you can choose any picture and even RBS lets you have a word printed on. Just makes it blatantly obvious so you avoid paying with the wrong card. Its not a deal breaker but it just makes it easy and wouldnt be much hassle to do.

“I don’t believe Apple Pay is particularly easy for banks to sign up to - but honestly I’m not sure. I’m working on the assumption that if it was easy Mondo would’ve done it by now.”

I love apple pay partly because it adds up contactless amounts so i can keep track until my bank reports them.

"This is one of the things I find (slightly - there’s an API so I can solve my own problem!) frustrating with Mondo - I also prefer to bank on my computer as opposed to my phone. That, and HTML5 makes everything easy - after all, nearly all devices now have a standards compliant web browser available!

If I’ve said anything crazy / misunderstood something feel free to call me out!"

No you haven’t fair points but i’m just listing what irritates me about who i bank with. I have tried them all though and theres not that much difference. Pretty much all do the minimum they have to and dont innovate until forced - the clearing banks are the worse again because its in their interest not to.

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14

I’d just like to add that contactless payments in my experience turn up with no prior pending notification. This does not happen with all banks, just Halifax & RBS in my experience.

I have a seperate account to fund direct debits and standing orders . Standing orders are for non direct debits bills & savings accounts any surplus funds are transferred to a day to day spending account for shopping or money transfers, which I only use mondo with via Apple Pay. I still carry an additional debit or credit in case, my battery dies ( to use Apple Pay) & either mondo or other card gets damaged. If all else fails, like I am mugged, then my bank is able to give me a code over the phone which will let me withdraw money from the arm without a card.

This may seem extreme but I have been in this extreme scenario before.

Also another annoyance of RBS, otherwise they are great, is that they take money during holiday periods before the standing order date to make sure the money arrives on the day the money was supposed to be transferred to the other account or party. Without the funds there at that earlier time, there will of course be more charges.

I haven’t found out yet or found a website that can calculate the best day for direct debits or standing orders for any given year.

:slight_smile:

15

Great list of “moans” - spot on.

If I can pick out one then it would be that I never ever want to have to ring my bank and listen to another set of recorded lies (“Your call is important to us”, “we are experiencing an unusually high level of calls” etc). If Mondo figures out all of the things I might want to do and lets me do them via the app (in one way or another) then they will have hit perfection.

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16

First Direct have their phones spot on. They are menuless and nearly everytime I have called, its been answered before the 3rd ring.

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17

@walderston true, it’s just a shame about their terrible app and online banking. And although people rate them as high I can’t say I’ve ever been that impressed.

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First Direct - many years ago when my finances were much less stable than they are now - I got into some financial difficulty.

First Direct were the least helpful of ALL creditors - in fact they went the extra mile and extracted as much as they could from me in excessive charges and fees and were completely unsympathetic.

Be aware and warned!

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19

Yeah I can second that. I might sound biased but their app is horrendous.

20

True about their app is horrid, slow and clunky. You can’t even view your account number within the app no matter how many menus you go through.
Also the constant ‘updates’ after an iOS update is extremely annoying although that might have something todo with the secure key?