Online Banking Services: Why so much red tape?

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Pete
Posts: 7589
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 13.36
Location: Dundee

can you please tell me the first and forth digits of your security number?

What security number?

The one you set up last time you phoned us.

Did I?

Yes.

How long is it meant to be?

Six digits.

Well I'll have set it as two...

no no, don't tell me the whole number, just those digits.

oh right. well (thinking outloud, counting on fingers), two

NO NO NO...



I eventually asked to change it when it was clear I didn't know it. So I had to go through a robot to do that.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
Jamez
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Joined: Sun 30 May, 2004 23.02
Location: Bristol

I prefer to go into my bank in person and discuss things face to face. Things usually get done a lot quicker than on the phone to some numpty in the far east who can barely speak English.
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DVB Cornwall
Posts: 519
Joined: Fri 24 Jun, 2005 21.42

I am using http://www.accountunity.com which stores all of my online passwords etc. securely in my computer's registry and I simply logon to their site and all my information is displayed following the entry of my accountunity username and password.

It gives me a summary of around 20 financial providers and e-mail accounts within around 90 seconds using 2M broadband.
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James H
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Joined: Tue 20 Jul, 2004 14.49
Location: In your endo

Jamez wrote:I prefer to go into my bank in person and discuss things face to face. Things usually get done a lot quicker than on the phone to some numpty in the far east who can barely speak English.
"numpty" seems popular at the moment
Jamez
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Location: Bristol

The word is popular, yes.

The person whom the word is aimed at, sadly, isn't. :roll:
Dr Lobster*
Posts: 2104
Joined: Sat 30 Aug, 2003 20.14

Jamez wrote:I prefer to go into my bank in person and discuss things face to face. Things usually get done a lot quicker than on the phone to some numpty in the far east who can barely speak English.
i think it's very unfair and hypocritcal that you call the customer service agent in the "far east" a "numpty". after all he could have learning difficulties, a developmental disorder, a speech impediment or all three. but not only that, he can't post to defend himself which is a type of criticism on this forum you've prevously felt was "close to the bone" and have been keen to eradicate.
rts
Posts: 1637
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 14.09

I had a random call from BT. They said that wanted to check bank details and needed the fifth and eighth digit of my security number to prove who I am.

How the fuck do I know who you are?!

Well I didn't quite say it like that, but they saw my point.
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Gavin Scott
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rts wrote:I had a random call from BT. They said that wanted to check bank details and needed the fifth and eighth digit of my security number to prove who I am.

How the fuck do I know who you are?!

Well I didn't quite say it like that, but they saw my point.
Were they genuine then? That would be worth a letter to the cheif executive.

How on earth would the more suggestible members of the public know who was a bogus caller and who wasn't if you get calls like that from BT? Totally innappropriate for them to initiate random checks like that.

On a slightly different note; I had a letter from the Bank of Scotland Merchant services people regarding the credit card terminal in my office. Apparently, fraud by "cardholder not present" transactions (i.e. on the phone or via the web) had increased by 25% in the previous 12 months. It informed me that extra security would be put in place to counter this.

The letter arrived over 6 months ago, and only recently has the security change been implemented.

Do you think *they* will pay for the 6 months worth of fraud, or will it be *us*?

Their snail-pace is disgusting given the billions of pounds of profit they disclosed last year.
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Lorns
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Jamez wrote:
I'm STILL paying off a £750 card I maxed out in 2002! If you miss a couple of months payments they come down on you like a ton of cow shit.

Oh my god, don't i just know it!! I recently had a rather nasty letter, from a debt recovery agency, just before xmas of all times. Demanding i contact them by the 27th December or the bailiffs will pop round and not for a cuppa tea.
Mind you it could have turned out quite interesting if the bailiffs did call round. My long suffering bloke used to be a debt collector, we both do martial arts and boxing we also train together.

It turned out that my current bank was to blame, so the bank i originally had the loan with, cancelled the bailiffs and continued with our original agreement.

What really pissed me off though, was neither of the banks contacted me by post or phone to inform me there was a problem.

Talk about a lack of communication. Banks really piss me off!!
cwathen
Posts: 1309
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 17.28

I'm STILL paying off a £750 card I maxed out in 2002! If you miss a couple of months payments they come down on you like a ton of cow shit
Oh I've been there. I have a Barclaycard with only a paltry £450 limit. I borrowed the money on it 3 years ago, and have paid it back time and time again. But I'm still making absolutely no headway in reducing the debt because the minimum payment makes almost no ingress into reducing the amount you owe and the charges for missed payments are so excessive (their particular favourite trick seems to be charging you £30 for being late with a payment, charging that to your account, which then results in you being charged another £30 for making a transaction which took you out of your agreed credit limit. A double charge for one misnomer!).
What really pissed me off though, was neither of the banks contacted me by post or phone to inform me there was a problem.

Talk about a lack of communication. Banks really piss me off!!
I think debt recovery is something which badly needs better regulation. There seemingly is nothing to stop anyone from setting up a debt collection agency, and such agencies often seem to take a case on face value from their client without any proof. Something which springs to my mind is when I was in disbute with SWEB Energy over an unpaid electricity bill which they were trying to hold me to account for even though the bill was for a period from before I moved into the property.

After a fruitless exchange of correspondance which went on for the better part of a year, they ended the stalemate by drafting in 'Knight Debt Recovery Services' to get the money of me, a typical one-man-and-his-group-of-thugs outfit which demanded payment of the disputed bill. SWEB had no further interest in the matter, for they had 'sold' the debt to the agency. Regardless of the fact that I rightly refused payment to SWEB, I did now owe this outfit money, nothing I prodced in regard to SWEB was of interest to them because they didn't care how the alledged debt had come into being, and I was threatened with 'home visits' from their 'outstanding debt enforcement team'. Since the bill was for a relatively modest amount, I actually did end up paying it rather than find out what a home visit would mean, but I remain bitter about it to this day.

My thinking on debt recovery is that it should be there to provide better access to civil justice for the 'little people'. The problem with civil law is that effective enforcement of it can only be viably be carried out by people with enough money behind them to risk taking something to court. Turning that on it's head though, financial institutions, major corporations, and others who can viably afford to sue you in the courts in order to extract outstanding debts, should be required to go down that road - such bodies should not have the option of appointing debt collection agencies as a scare tactic to recover bad debts.

Debt collection agencies would continue as an option for the 'little people' to get their money back - for an independent business seeking to recover money lost in a debtor defaulting on an agreement, not so that Barclaycard can threaten you with visits from 'Mercers Debt Collection Limited' to make their default notices sound more threatening. But, these agencies should be properly licenced and properly regulated to ensure that they do function as bodies which recover bad debts, not groups of thugs which extort money out of people. As a part of this, they should not be allowed to take up a client's case without that client providing significant documentary evidence which supports the claim of bad debt. They should also be required to ask for, and consider, the debtors' side of the story (along with considering any documentary evidence in contrivance of the alledged bad debt which the debtor might be able to supply).

Debt collection agencies, along with wheel clampers, should be provided as legitimate services for persons who genuinely need them, not a group of thugs seeking to get rich quick whilst carrying out work for bodies which are quite able to deal with outstanding debts through the courts.

Above all else though - debt recovery agencies should remain bodies acting on behalf of their clients to secure the return of money to their client in exchange for a comission, the concept of 'selling debt' so that a 'client' can simply offload a debt to a third party which that third party can then demand repayment of is so open to abuse that it should be made illegal.
Aston
Posts: 278
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 14.28
Location: London

Yes, it can be a bit of a rigmoral when logging onto internet banking. I have to enter 3 pieces of information:
> Username (randomly generated set of digits/letters provided by the bank)
> Password (chosen by me)
> 3 digits from my passcode (also chosen by me)

It can be slightly laborious when I get one digit wrong and have to start again, but if it means my money is safe, then I think it's worth those few extra seconds.

I'm sure Chris, you'd be one of the first people to complain about your bank if they weren't sympathetic to banking fraud and someone stealing from your account ;)
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