Nationwide on-line banking

50Twuncle wrote: »

If "any card reader" from any bank works - how does this add to security ?

veryintrigued wrote: »

Because anyone making these withdrawals would still need YOUR card and YOUR pin to enable them.

The card reader checks you have both of these.

And you will still need to input your PIN.
I think the same analogy with withdrawing money from the cash machines.
You could withdraw money given you have your card with you and input the right PIN

50Twuncle wrote: »

But the card reader also outputs a (unique ?) number for you to input into the website ...

Which has been generated from your card, pin & the current date & time. So nationwide know that the number was generated just now by someone with access to the card and pin. They told you not to disclose your pin to anyone, so they assume it's you. I don't see how the branding on the card reader is a problem.

Imagine the alternative. All the banks would need to invest extra money in making incompatible card readers, we would have the inconvenience of us having to carry around multiple readers. The only advantage is that a criminal who is going to the hassle of obtaining your card and pin & username, would have to go to the extra minimal effort of obtaining a card reader for each bank.

phillw wrote: »

Imagine the alternative. All the banks would need to invest extra money in making incompatible card readers, we would have the inconvenience of us having to carry around multiple readers. The only advantage is that a criminal who is going to the hassle of obtaining your card and pin & username, would have to go to the extra minimal effort of obtaining a card reader for each bank.

Or, you would have an even larger collection of those awful, non interchangeable, random code generator widgets used by the likes of M&S Bank and Yorkshire Bank:(

You don't need a card reader to login to Nationwide. By option you can type in an assigned customer number, memorable data answer and 3 digits of an assigned 6 digit passnumber as alternative.

But any card reader should work for any UK bank regardless of which bank supplied it. It's the chip on your debit card that's important.

antrobus wrote: »

Correct. Every time you login, you are given the choice of using either, (a) the card reader or, (b) memorable data.

Option A is a bit quicker and easier. But during the recent 'problems' I was obliged to use option B.

In my experience option B is much quicker and easier and does not require either the card or the card reader. There are also three pieces of memorable data that you can choose from.