Co-operative Bank - not a good start.

gsmh

I opened a Co-operative Bank account at the start of this week and today (Friday) I received my debit card. It had a sticker on it say I had to call online banking to set up a 'Verified by VISA' password if I wished to use it online. I tried adding it to Apple Pay and received the same message. I am now on hold to the Co-operative Bank phone banking service. So far is has been 35 minutes and counting. I can't believe it - other banks sail through the 'add to Apple Pay' process with no need to call anyone. I was interested in using the account but am losing the will to live now. maybe I will collect the referral bonus and move on. This is the worst experience I have had with any bank - and I've had a great many accounts.

UPDATE: After 40 minutes I got through and was told they need a 12 character 'Verified by VISA' password (12 characters!) and  I managed to get the card setup for Apple Pay. Apparently it's all the fault of VISA who are insisting on these security measures.

bristolleedsfan

gsmh said:

I opened a Co-operative Bank account at the start of this week and today (Friday) I received my debit card. It had a sticker on it say I had to call online banking to set up a 'Verified by VISA' password if I wished to use it online. I tried adding it to Apple Pay and received the same message. I am now on hold to the Co-operative Bank phone banking service. So far is has been 35 minutes and counting. I can't believe it - other banks sail through the 'add to Apple Pay' process with no need to call anyone. I was interested in using the account but am losing the will to live now. maybe I will collect the referral bonus and move on. This is the worst experience I have had with any bank - and I've had a great many accounts.

UPDATE: After 40 minutes I got through and was told they need a 12 character 'Verified by VISA' password (12 characters!) and  I managed to get the card setup for Apple Pay. Apparently it's all the fault of VISA who are insisting on these security measures.

As for long wait, you unluckily picked a day to phone when App has been down with users not being able to open app, online banking might have been down earlier as well.

masonic

I bet VISA aren't insisting on customers phoning to set it up. I received my card with the same sticker too. Can't even be bothered to peel the sticker off. The only use I'll have for the card is another switch. Isn't VBV superseded now by SMS OTP?

gsmh

masonic said:

I bet VISA aren't insisting on customers phoning to set it up. I received my card with the same sticker too. Can't even be bothered to peel the sticker off. The only use I'll have for the card is another switch. Isn't VBV superseded now by SMS OTP?

Yes, I told the CS rep that but she insisted VISA say they have to setup the VBV passcode and by that time I wasn't going to argue. At the very least there should be something in the app to verify the new debit card. Having said that the app doesn't work correctly on the iPhone 14 Pro - the top of the app and the menu and back buttons all merge into the new 'Dynamic Island' and it takes very many presses to register either option. Much of the current account detail is also obsured. It looks the most amateurish of any mobile banking app I have used. It really isn't good if they can't get it right on Apple's latest and best-selling phone. All they need to do is shift everything down by few mms. Not rocket science . . .

WillPS

I saw the label and thought 'another reason not to bother trying to actually use it'. I'm in 2 minds as to whether to bother going for the £1 a month for having 4 DDs. Seems so piffling, even if would only be 3 mins work.

Alex9384

Hm.. I didn't need to do this (luckily). But even without it, Co-op was one of the worst banks I've been with, in terms of online functionalities, lack of transaction info, etc. I lost my patience after just 4 months and switched it to TSB, which is almost as lame as Co-op, so it will be used for next switch.

HillStreetBlues

gsmh said:

UPDATE: After 40 minutes I got through and was told they need a 12 character 'Verified by VISA' password (12 characters!) and  I managed to get the card setup for Apple Pay. Apparently it's all the fault of VISA who are insisting on these security measures.

Personally I think 12 characters make it less secure than a 6 character one.
How many more people would need to write down the longer one!

masonic

HillStreetBlues said:

gsmh said:

UPDATE: After 40 minutes I got through and was told they need a 12 character 'Verified by VISA' password (12 characters!) and  I managed to get the card setup for Apple Pay. Apparently it's all the fault of VISA who are insisting on these security measures.

Personally I think 12 characters make it less secure than a 6 character one.
How many more people would need to write down the longer one!

There's 15 characters in your username.

HillStreetBlues

masonic said:

There's 15 characters in your username.

And that's saved onto my computer. 
So apart from proving you can count, was there a point to your comment?

masonic

HillStreetBlues said:

masonic said:

There's 15 characters in your username.

And that's saved onto my computer. 
So apart from proving you can count, was there a point to your comment?

That a 15 character phrase isn't difficult to remember for the vast majority of people. Not only is your username easy to remember, it evokes strong memories that would make it difficult to forget. Easier than a shorter password of equivalent complexity. For those that it is a problem for, writing it down and storing it in a secure place is perfectly fine. I wasn't suggesting you use it as your VbV password, given your public affiliation with it, but if you are struggling to come up with a >12 character password that you can remember, perhaps you could adopt a similar approach with some other obscure subject of your memories, or a mixture thereof.

Personally, I don't remember any of my online passwords, by design.