Is it me, or has banking security gone beyond a joke now?

frivolous_fay

We had some fraud on our accounts recently (not online related) so I accept that there's a shedload of fraudsters out there ready to take your money. But things are seriously doing my head in now. Our PC security is literally the strongest aspect of our protection, yet it's the one that gets bogged down in all these mindless passwords and tripwires.

Verified by visa - I lost out on gig tickets recently because after 2 attempts at entering this password on my fiddly iphone keyboard, my card was blocked, although I wasn't told. Two attempts. Dozens of secure messages have not got me any closer to confirming why this happened. However, I was told I had to change the password - fair enough. Changing the VBV password depends on you remembering your username though. 'If you don't know your username, you will find it on any confirmations of online payments made with this card'. Um, no you won't, because it doesn't show on there.

Card reader - ok, it's not rocket science, but so so damn time consuming and irritating. I just want to pay a freaking bill. A year ago I could have done it in a minute flat through online banking. Now I have to trot downstairs, find my purse, get my bank card, come back upstairs, stick it in the reader, plug in a bunch of numbers, finally pay the bill, remember to take my bank card back downstairs again otherwise I won't be able to buy lunch tomorrow, yadda yadda, you get the picture.

Login details - if I had to remember all the login details for the 6-8 accounts I access online, I would probably go potty. Anytime my partner tries to access our joint account, he gets it locked out because he has to remember correctly (and spell correctly) 3 pieces of personal data. Right now, the only thing going for the credit card people who have mucked me about with VBV is they provide a way of secure way of storing my account details for me to give me quick access. If it wasn't for that I'd have shut the account down.

Wish you could opt out of all this nonsense. Online banking used to be fantastically convenient - now the honeymoon is over and it's just plain annoying!

Storck

So if you opted out who would cover the cost if there was fraud on your account? Would you accept liability for anything on your account to make it quicker to log on, I know I wouldn't

Kaleidoscope27

The online stuff doesn't really bother me. I just accept it really.

What !!!!ed me off last week was trying to get my billing address changed on my NatWest account. Tried to do it in branch but was kept waiting for 45 minutes so walked out. Tried to do it over the phone but wasn't allowed because I didn't know my telephone banking password (which is different from my online banking one.) So I asked if I could change my password but I wasn't allowed to do that over the phone either. It didn't matter that I could provide them with every other piece of info about me under the sun, they couldn't do it. It would be done by post. (A gold star if you've already spotted the problem.) But sending out a change of password card by post was pointless. Why? Because my address it the exact thing I'm trying to change!

By this point I was very pee'd off. The next day I withdrew all my money out of the account and when I get my JSA payments sorted, I'm closing it. I have another account with Alliance and Leicester which was a much simpler process do to the same thing. NatWest locked me out of my Internet banking and told me it would be at least 2 weeks before it would be unlocked and my password changed. I can open a new account elsewhere faster than that.

TurkishDelight

At the moment it's "Rapport" that is getting on my nerves.

I installed it when A&L offered it, when it wasn't crashing my browser it was making it run painfully slow, so I had to ditch it.
Then followed a long exchange between me and a customer service rep.

Them: it doesn't do that
Me: well it did
Them: but it doesn't do that
Etc...

So when HSBC offered it to me I said no.
And then had to say no for the next few weeks everytime I logged in, as I'd somehow got stuck in a cookie loop.

Definitely agree about VBV- what a pain that is! You can't use a password you've already used, so when you forget what it was you have to come up with ever more complex ones, which obviously get immediately forgotten, and the whole tedious thing starts again.

The_Unready

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Card reader - ok, it's not rocket science, but so so damn time consuming and irritating. I just want to pay a freaking bill. A year ago I could have done it in a minute flat through online banking. Now I have to trot downstairs, find my purse, get my bank card, come back upstairs, stick it in the reader, plug in a bunch of numbers, finally pay the bill, remember to take my bank card back downstairs again otherwise I won't be able to buy lunch tomorrow, yadda yadda, you get the picture.

Hi,

I'm with you on the Card Reader one! Like you, I have to enter my details just to pay a bill online - what a pain! If any fraudster breaks into my online account and wants to pay my bills for me, then great - it'll save me the bother!

The Unready

bcl999

Agree about the card readers. I've 4 of the bu**ers from 4 different banks now.

Don't mind the Verified by Visa sites and suchlike.

Freddie_Snowbits

Freda was booted out of the bank's safe the other week when, after the first time in 7 years she had to ring the telephone bank. She could not remeber her password!

She now has to get pertrified by Pisa everytime she makes a transaction to pay her Gold card, but alas, she only does this when allowed on her meagre allowance once a quarter to buy stockings, she cannot remember that. A simple solution would be to log in, then get a message by dedicated mobile phone device for the access code. Simple and easy.

No, my bank wnat everything from the cats best food, to inside leg measurements and bra size.

Never once do we get the 'Something for the weekend, Sir?'

biscit

I get irritated at having to go through security just to ask a general question about the way a certain banks accounts work. Sure to give me personal information about my account check it's me, but if I'm just being told what i can and can't do with account type X they don't need my personal info and don't need to check it's me so they can access it.

cirrusmp

<Please Delete>

TEDDYRUKSPIN

Ha. Barclays with their magic reader. LOL.

Good luck. This is the future unfortunately.

Magic passwords or magical readers or not. This is the way forward.

You blame banks for doing this but it is the technically advanced fraudsters who are stealing your money.

If your money was stolen from your main account, you would also blame the bank for not providing you with a very secure passwords etc etc...

No one wins. Moan all you like. You can point the finger at the wall.

frivolous_fay

TEDDYRUKSPIN wrote: »

You blame banks for doing this but it is the technically advanced fraudsters who are stealing your money.

If your money was stolen from your main account, you would also blame the bank for not providing you with a very secure passwords etc etc...

No one wins. Moan all you like. You can point the finger at the wall.

Well yeah, I do feel qualified to grumble. Our cards were copied in India. What's the point having a VBV password if loads of sites (Dixons, aer lingus, Beaverbrooks, I'm talking to you) don't require it? Clearly VBV doesn't hinder fraudsters in the slightest - it just causes ME grief.

What was my card reader doing to stop the fraud that was enabled by a simple photocopy or photo of my card?

If I had a virus infested PC, or I was innocent enough to fall for phishing emails, I might appreciate these measures. But it isn't, I'm not and I don't.