A story about banks

Last year the number of people using internet banking in the UK passed that of people using telephone banking. Almost 17 million people, more than a third of the adult population, now bank online. Four years ago, only 7.5 million people used internet banking. Garry and I are part of the UK's growing online community. We have been heavy users of internet banking for many years in Australia, so it was natural for us to set up internet banking facilities when we arrived here. However, it soon became apparent that this country has a lot to learn from its antipodean cousins. A few anecdotes paint a grim and often frustrating picture on online banking in London.

First, we’ve found that each bank has its own unique process for logging customers onto its site. Some use pass codes, others use passwords, while some require both in differing combinations. Even worse, password creation varies enormously. Some want more than six letters in your password, some want both numbers and letters, while one site even wants at least capital letter as part of the combination. The result is a confusing mix of passwords, making it almost impossible to remember access details from one site to the next. I currently use six different password combinations to access four different banking services in Australia and the UK. Needless to say I’ve locked myself out of at one site more than three times in the last six months alone.

Our primary UK bank took the entire access challenge to an entirely new level last month by introducing both passwords and electronic key-chain security tokens. These tokens generate new digital access codes every minute on a tiny display screen. The whole set up is incredibly inconvenient. You always need to have your token on hand to access your account. This simply means that I can’t access my accounts from the office or any overseas location as I’m disinclined to carry my token with me – my pockets are cluttered enough as it is. Of course if I misplace my token I’ll have no internet banking access at all.

Simply setting up internet banking access has its own set of challenges. One UK bank required us to open an account before we could even apply to have online access using a separate set of paperwork. Why on earth we couldn’t simply apply for online access simultaneously was beyond me. The mystery only grew when another bank facilitated both processes using one application.

Equally mystifying is an major national bank that’s unable to provide access to its credit card services from the site I use to access other accounts with the same bank. This was never a problem in Australia, but for some reason, is totally impossible to do in the UK. Needless to say, we’re not fans of online banking in the UK and miss the simple, efficient services available in Australia.