Online banking experiences, your recommendations please

1984ReturnsForReal.

Lloyds TSB. Excellent online banking service.

Rupert_Bear

Has to be said Lloyds is brilliant. I have one of those bl...dy card readers with Barclays online and hate it.

Foggster

Another one for Lloyds. Very easy to navigate, I am also loving the mobile phone banking and looking forward to the money manager.

Lloyds uses the card reader for their business accounts and it is ok but means I cant do transfers and payments "on the go" because I dont really want to carry the reader around with me.

philwakely

Don't touch Santander even with a bargepole!

I have banked with Alliance and Leicester for a number of years without any major problem. All you need for online banking is an 8-digit internet id, five digit pin and a password. The Internet Id can be 'remembered' on the PC, but I have a credit card sized note supplied by A&L with the number on it in case I forget it - I have no problem with that as the information is useless without the pin and password.

However, I have now been asked to transfer to the Santander online banking system. You need a 10-digit personal Id (which is similar to the A&L Internet Id in that it can be 'remembered' by the PC), but you then need a 8-digit Passcode AND 5-digit Registration Number in order to log into the system.

You are advised not to write down these numbers for obvious reasons, but how many people can remember several long strings of numbers? When I had to query something on the 'phone, the Customer Service Advisor actually suggested that I stored these numbers on my mobile 'phone - which is, to my way of thinking, actually less secure than writing them on a piece of paper! My response to this was "I do not possess a mobile 'phone" to which he replied "Well, you cannot use online banking then as you need one whenever you want to do anything other than check your statement as we send you a 4-digit code which you need to enter to confirm the transaction whilst in your online banking session."

Having been a very satisfied customer of A&L for a number of years, I am now in the process of moving all of my banking elsewhere because of this. Again, the Customer Service person at Santander acted as though they weren't that bothered by losing a customer.

ERICS_MUM

jen245 wrote: »

I mainly use Natwest and Halifax, and have previoulsy used Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Santander. My favourite is Natwest, its easy to navigate and my statements go back to when I opened my accounts, although I dont know of any banks that give you such detailed information on transactions. Also Natwests faster payments are very reliable

Another thumbs up for Nat West.

rb10

philwakely wrote: »

However, I have now been asked to transfer to the Santander online banking system. You need a 10-digit personal Id (which is similar to the A&L Internet Id in that it can be 'remembered' by the PC), but you then need a 8-digit Passcode AND 5-digit Registration Number in order to log into the system.

Your passcode does not have to be numerical. It can be text, numbers, or a combination of the two. And can be any length between 8 and 16 digits.

The registration number is just that; a number. But if you struggle to remember these five digits, you could always change them to be some combination of your (4-digit) debit card PIN.

philwakely

rb10 wrote: »

Your passcode does not have to be numerical. It can be text, numbers, or a combination of the two. And can be any length between 8 and 16 digits.

That does make life easier, but when my mum set up her online access details, the wording on the screen asked her to change her initial passcode to 'another 8-digit number'.

However, my main gripe is that I need a mobile 'phone to be able to do anything other than view my statement - and that is so that I can be sent by text yet another number that I need to enter in order to verify what I want to do. With A&L it was simply a case of entering part of my pre-determined password.

Hence, I will still be moving my accounts away from Santander (unless, of course, santander are prepared to give me a free mobile 'phone so that I can access their service (a bit like the card reader supplied by Nationwide).

rb10

philwakely wrote: »

However, my main gripe is that I need a mobile 'phone to be able to do anything other than view my statement - and that is so that I can be sent by text yet another number that I need to enter in order to verify what I want to do. With A&L it was simply a case of entering part of my pre-determined password.

I believe that the mobile phone code is only needed for the first time that a payment is sent ... so unless you're frequently sending payments to lots of different people, you could make the first payment by phone/in branch, and then (maybe?) do subsequent payments online, without the need for the mobile.

This does depend on telephone banking/branches and online keeping the same payee listings ... I know that with Halifax this would work (if they used the SMS verification system) but I don't know if Santander's systems work in the same way (i.e. if you make a payment by phone will it show up as a payee in your online list?).

philwakely

rb10 wrote: »

I believe that the mobile phone code is only needed for the first time that a payment is sent ... so unless you're frequently sending payments to lots of different people, you could make the first payment by phone/in branch, and then (maybe?) do subsequent payments online, without the need for the mobile.

This does depend on telephone banking/branches and online keeping the same payee listings ... I know that with Halifax this would work (if they used the SMS verification system) but I don't know if Santander's systems work in the same way (i.e. if you make a payment by phone will it show up as a payee in your online list?).

I was told over the 'phone that Payee details that have been set up in the A&L system will need to be set up again once converted to the Santander system and I have at least a dozen of those. These can only be set up when I need to make payments rather than en-masse at start-up. Also, I'm a 'Mr Awkward' in that I want to be able to control my own banking without the need for branch/telephone intervention (and certainly do not want to pay for 'unnecessary' telephone calls )

Also, I would expect a service at least of the same level as that already received - to me, the whole set-up is a major step backwards and certainly is not 'the best of all worlds' [ie the best system from all constituent banks pre-takeover as Santander told me they were likely to adopt]

ERICS_MUM

I can't help comparing the way in which Santander is "managing" it's migration of A&L etc from their own computer systems onto the central Santander version, with the switch from NatWest to RBS systems. The latter was almost seamless and required very little input or effort from the customer.

Perhaps Santander could have employed the same project team ?