Taking my bank to the financial ombudsman over their crappy downloadable statements

callum9999

daveystew wrote: »

PS. You should probably work in banking if you think implementing something like that would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. I mean really - listen to yourself.

All I'm asking is that instead of querying a database and printing to PDF, they query a database and output to CSV. The systems are already in place for this, it just needs some middleware - the sort of stuff technies (liek myself) write everyday.

As for Money - it won't even open my money files now, as from the note on my CD case I wrote a few years ago "Remember to let Money update itself before opening any .mny files". As yet, it hasn't updated itself. I guess, because there's no support at MS.

As for not needing a passport to use money, I didn't know that. If I manage to get it back online, I will use your advice, thank you.

As for financial ombudsman, it's a fair point. Writing a letter is not going to have the wheels of big business grinding to a halt though. And as you may have noticed, I'm seeking opinion here as well.

And the overwhelming opinion is that you are being utterly unreasonable.

You have ZERO right to CSV statements. If it's that important to you then go elsewhere.

mulronie

daveystew wrote: »

PS. You should probably work in banking if you think implementing something like that would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. I mean really - listen to yourself.

I do work in banking. And something like that would cost a fortune. Anyway it's irrelevant because the FSA are very clear about what banks need to provide by way of account statements:

http://fsahandbook.info/FSA/html/handbook/BCOBS/4/2

This is what the bank has to do.

Barclays are doing it.

The end.

daveystew

opinions4u wrote: »

You want them to make a change that will probably cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to deliver, if not more.

More than "hundreds of thousands" is actually "millions".

Whilst I support the somewhat common sense view here that I'm asking for a change which is somewhat technical, and certainly has more ramifications than a simple bit of code (there would be updating the main system to allow that to happen from branches, documentation, perhaps a security review, most likely some additional checks to do, setting up of a project, rollout, etc, etc) Lloyds seem to manage it and this is what businesses DO.

Imagine how many other businesses in the country who rely on Barclays could use this?

Anyway. I suspect this thread has come to a close. Have sent email to FO and will see what happens.

Enjoy your evenings.

dalesrider

daveystew wrote: »

The PDF's themselves are password protected, and even if you do use software to bypass this, the layout is such that it's *completely* useless for any sort of electronic use (accounts, analysis, etc).
Dave

The whole reason for password protected PDF's is that they are secure.
Just think if you could downloand, alter what was on there. Then trip down to a retailer and say you billed me X instead of y and I want a refund....
Remember you can use these for ID purposes and als oproof of purchase....
You think a retailer or such is oing to stand that if they are in a format that can easily be altered...

innovate

daveystew wrote: »

It's amazing what low standards some people have.

Could it be you are mixing up your personal likes and dislikes with standards?

TheBanker

I very much doubt the FOS will consider this case. Hopefully they will dismiss it with merit rather than let it clog up a system that's already overworked with genuine cases. It is a shame the FOS don't have the power to charge people who quite frankly waste their time.

Incidentally I had a particularly vocal customer who kept suggesting we change something. We explained to him our reasons why we weren't going to change it. He went to FOS. FOS told him to jog on. He used to write every month with his suggestion. We decided to do a survey And out of 200 customers, about 100 said they hated this idea and 100 said they didn't care.

In the end the customer said "If you don't sort this out by the end of the month I'm closing my account". I think he was quite surprised to receive a cheque for the balance and a closing statement by return of post

ILW

Think OP cannot have much to worry about in his life if this is such a big deal. I would suggest getting out more.

moreofthegoodstuff

Why didn't you just keep your normal statements sent through the post? That would have solved any issues.

callum9999

dalesrider wrote: »

The whole reason for password protected PDF's is that they are secure.
Just think if you could downloand, alter what was on there. Then trip down to a retailer and say you billed me X instead of y and I want a refund....
Remember you can use these for ID purposes and als oproof of purchase....
You think a retailer or such is oing to stand that if they are in a format that can easily be altered...

Where? I've never been able to use home printed bank statements for anything official - let alone verifying ID!

Gromitt

dalesrider wrote: »

The whole reason for password protected PDF's is that they are secure.

They are secure unless you know the password to open them, then its game over. The password protection can then be removed* and an unprotected PDF created. I do it to allow me to copy and paste from PDF documents which have those features turned off.

If you have the full version of Acrobat you can then alter these unprotected versions. I have modified such versions before as an estate agent wanted proof that I had available funds and I didn't want them knowing my actual account details.

* - no Adobe product I know allows this (understandable), but alternatives exist.