real time balance

notafan

bigadaj wrote: »

But why would they offer it or more importantly guarantee it?

Just sounds like and excuse for someone who goes overdrawn or incurs other charges to say it wasnt my fault I couldn't track my own spending, stupid bank, guve me some of the compensation.

I dont go overdrawn, but i dont use cash. I find it frustrating that my bank is three days behind my life. If i log on to check i expect it to be up to date - and it rarely is.

Why shouldn't it be?

I don't use natwest but they have a forum and its full threads on it. And how many people on here start threads 'the bank isnt up to date over a weekend or whats the difference between available/actual/cleared balance etc'.

Ballard

notafan wrote: »

I dont go overdrawn, but i dont use cash. I find it frustrating that my bank is three days behind my life. If i log on to check i expect it to be up to date - and it rarely is.

Why shouldn't it be?

I don't use natwest but they have a forum and its full threads on it. And how many people on here start threads 'the bank isnt up to date over a weekend or whats the difference between available/actual/cleared balance etc'.

A banks job is to keep your money safe. It isn't to budget for you.

notafan

Ballard wrote: »

A banks job is to keep your money safe. It isn't to budget for you.

A bank's job is hugely complicated - they lend money, they invest money & they hold deposits, they deal with transactions on behalf of people. They provide a level of service.

It's not as simple as here keep this safe.

I'm not expecting one to budget for me.

Simply stating they can do a better job at providing the information they already supply.

They dont do this because as difficult market to enter, very regulated with huge costs required they havent had much new competition. They havent needed to innovate much because nobody else has been pushing things forward. It's in there interest for them to hold on to money as long as possible, to charge people for going overdrawn.

Hopefully the challenger banks will create the drive to being innovative.

gunsandbanjos

notafan wrote: »

I dont go overdrawn, but i dont use cash. I find it frustrating that my bank is three days behind my life. If i log on to check i expect it to be up to date - and it rarely is.

Why shouldn't it be?

As I asked above, the bank literally don't know about some transactions until they post, 2/3/4 + days later.

How are you proposing we get round this?

agrinnall

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

As I asked above, the bank literally don't know about some transactions until they post, 2/3/4 + days later.

How are you proposing we get round this?

notafan's answer is for every transaction to be notified online (broadband or mobile) at the time it is completed. We've tried to explain some of the difficulties involved in such a system and why even with the best will in the world it's never going to be possible 100% of the time, but it's taking a long time to sink in.

Ballard

notafan wrote: »

A bank's job is hugely complicated - they lend money, they invest money & they hold deposits, they deal with transactions on behalf of people. They provide a level of service.

It's not as simple as here keep this safe.

I'm not expecting one to budget for me.

Simply stating they can do a better job at providing the information they already supply.

They dont do this because as difficult market to enter, very regulated with huge costs required they havent had much new competition. They havent needed to innovate much because nobody else has been pushing things forward. It's in there interest for them to hold on to money as long as possible, to charge people for going overdrawn.

Hopefully the challenger banks will create the drive to being innovative.

Banks may offer other services such as lending or borrowing, foreign exchange etc., but these are optional. The only thing that the bank absolutely must do is keep your money safe.

colsten

notafan wrote: »

For a lady that still uses windows xp i'm not sure your the best person to advise on what is technically possible or the implications.

This is my last contribution to this thread. Just to let you know that you are wrong once again, as concluding that because I use Windows XP doesn't mean I only use Windows XP. You have absolutely no idea how many different OSs I use, how many devices I use, or what my technical and business abilities are.

Suffice to say that my decades of experience with large scale, often multi-national, IT projects help me spot techno-geeks who would do anything for technology's sake and who have little or no perception of the business case for what tickles their technological fancy.

AnotherJoe

notafan wrote: »

It could also be done through your own mobile - which could report payments to your bank instantly through your own data connection.

Right, because there is always a strong mobile signal with data available everywhere in the UK :rotfl:

notafan

agrinnall wrote: »

notafan's answer is for every transaction to be notified online (broadband or mobile) at the time it is completed. We've tried to explain some of the difficulties involved in such a system and why even with the best will in the world it's never going to be possible 100% of the time, but it's taking a long time to sink in.

It already is 100% possible 100% of the time - full auth cards. Your telling me its not by giving me examples of when offline cards would also be effected - like a power cut or patchy reception.

You dont need to tell me the difficulties or wait for it to sink in. We disagree and thats fine.

They already do it - they just dont do it for everyone currently because it suits them.
Banking is currently running on a bunch of legacy systems from decades ago and i might be in the minority but i'm happy to aspire to having a better bank thats useful, informative and has an amazing customer experience.

I'd hate to have a "this is as good as it gets mentality!" and if everyone did nothing would change.

notafan

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Right, because there is always a strong mobile signal with data available everywhere in the UK :rotfl:

Ofcom auction required 98% coverage for one operator for 4g.

Every house is getting a smart meter which will use mobile to send data - hows that happening?

It can send the small amount of data it would need to via 2g/3g/4g it doesn't need to download a feature length film - the size of data it would send would be tiny - which is why some terminals run on dial up still.