• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Online banking query

Status
Not open for further replies.

Xenophon PCDGS

Veteran Member
Joined
17 Apr 2011
Messages
32,269
Location
A semi-rural part of north-west England
I have just had a letter from my bank (not saying which one, but it is one of the major ones) in the post stating that the Government has told all the major high street banks to inform their banking customers that when purchasing goods online, a specific code will be needed in addition to existing procedures. I suppose that this letter has been sent to all their domestic account holders, as I do not subscribe to any form of telephone banking. One interesting item on the second page of the letter makes mention of the fact that certain account holders without the facilities that everyone seems to have in terms of online banking and the use of a smart phone, is the future intention to provide a card reader to enable code generation for use in online shopping.

I was going in to Manchester yesterday, to the city centre branch where my account is held, so I took the said letter and spoke to a manager. He made contact with their team that deals with such matters and it appears that the above-mentioned card reader will not be made available until November 2021 at the earliest. He apologised for the fact that date had been omitted from the letter.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

GusB

Established Member
Associate Staff
Buses & Coaches
Joined
9 Jul 2016
Messages
6,546
Location
Elginshire
If you don't make any purchases online, this isn't going to affect you.

I was issued with a card reader some years ago, but it was put away somewhere as it was never used. On the one occasion I needed it to reset my online banking password, I couldn't find the damn thing, but I was still able to call up and have them initiate the password reset process.

I did receive an email a couple of weeks ago advising that they'll be moving over to some system that requires additional verification when I purchase things. In all honesty, it just adds additional complexity, and I don't think that I need it; I'm already prompted to provide three random characters from a preset password.

It's just another layer of security, but you've made it quite clear that you don't indulge in modern banking practices, so I really wouldn't worry if I were you!
 

Hadders

Veteran Member
Associate Staff
Senior Fares Advisor
Joined
27 Apr 2011
Messages
12,984
It's a new security feature for online shopping. Basically when you buy something online you'll be asked to enter a one-off code that is sent to you to confirm that it's you making the purchase. Depending on the bank the code can be sent to you in one of the following ways:

- by text message
- via a banking app on a smartphone
- by landline telephone
- using the card reader issued when you sign up for online banking
 

Ashley Hill

Established Member
Joined
8 Dec 2019
Messages
3,199
Location
The West Country
It annoys me that banks and similar seems to assume that everybody these days is technologically advanced. I'm not. In a world where everything has the possibility to be hacked I'm quite happy to go to my local bank for all my needs. BUT! They then try and persuade me to have their app and do it all from my armchair. Talk about doing yourself out of a job. I doubt my phones modern enough to support the app plus I only have wifi internet.
 

GusB

Established Member
Associate Staff
Buses & Coaches
Joined
9 Jul 2016
Messages
6,546
Location
Elginshire
It annoys me that banks and similar seems to assume that everybody these days is technologically advanced. I'm not. In a world where everything has the possibility to be hacked I'm quite happy to go to my local bank for all my needs. BUT! They then try and persuade me to have their app and do it all from my armchair. Talk about doing yourself out of a job. I doubt my phones modern enough to support the app plus I only have wifi internet.
Unfortunately a lot of companies (not necessarily banks) are monitoring how staff promote other products, and this includes various online means of dealing with customer enquiries. I did a stint with Sky for a while whereby we replaced the traditional "Press 1 for this and 2 for that" with an actual human who directed calls to the most appropriate place. One of the things we were marked on was "adding value", which involved advising customers of other ways that they could either manage their account, or promoting other online products such as Sky Go. All the while they were developing their voice recognition technology...

I've seen my bank's call centre opening times go from 24 hour to 8am-8pm and now it's 8am-6pm; ostensibly due to Covid, but it's quite clear that the pandemic has only really accelerated their plans to either restrict these services further, or remove them completely. I wouldn't object so much if their app actually did everything that a human could do. They've also got a habit of shutting down the service on Saturday nights for maintenance; I was once stuck in town after a night out because I didn't have enough cash in my main account for a taxi home, and I was completely unable to transfer money from my savings account.
 

BluePenguin

On Moderation
Joined
26 Sep 2016
Messages
1,605
Location
Kent
If you don't make any purchases online, this isn't going to affect you.

I was issued with a card reader some years ago, but it was put away somewhere as it was never used. On the one occasion I needed it to reset my online banking password, I couldn't find the damn thing, but I was still able to call up and have them initiate the password reset process.

I did receive an email a couple of weeks ago advising that they'll be moving over to some system that requires additional verification when I purchase things. In all honesty, it just adds additional complexity, and I don't think that I need it; I'm already prompted to provide three random characters from a preset password.

It's just another layer of security, but you've made it quite clear that you don't indulge in modern banking practices, so I really wouldn't worry if I were you!
I can’t stand this at all. Usually when I need to make a transfer I’m not at home so being asked to use a card reader is not helpful. Fortunately HSBC don’t make me use one

It is madness how some banking apps let you authenticate with your fingerprint or face yet the others force you to faff around with card readers and entering long numbers
 

AlterEgo

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Dec 2008
Messages
20,036
Location
No longer here
It annoys me that banks and similar seems to assume that everybody these days is technologically advanced. I'm not. In a world where everything has the possibility to be hacked I'm quite happy to go to my local bank for all my needs. BUT! They then try and persuade me to have their app and do it all from my armchair. Talk about doing yourself out of a job. I doubt my phones modern enough to support the app plus I only have wifi internet.
But this is only going to involve a text message to your phone. And only if you purchase online, in lieu of a PIN.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

Veteran Member
Joined
17 Apr 2011
Messages
32,269
Location
A semi-rural part of north-west England
But this is only going to involve a text message to your phone. And only if you purchase online, in lieu of a PIN.
What if you only have a landline phone of the old type that text messages cannot be received upon? When we moved here last year, this is what came with the house and to be honest, it does the job it was intended to do....make and receive telephone calls.
 

Hadders

Veteran Member
Associate Staff
Senior Fares Advisor
Joined
27 Apr 2011
Messages
12,984
If you're doing online banking and don't have a phone capable of receiving a text message then your bank will give you a card reader.
 

Hadders

Veteran Member
Associate Staff
Senior Fares Advisor
Joined
27 Apr 2011
Messages
12,984
We have now gone full circle. Please see the final paragraph of the very first posting on this thread and the comment made by the bank regarding availability.
I would say it's very poor of your bank not to have card readers available until later in the year. My bank has been giving them to their customers for years.
 

87 027

Member
Joined
1 Sep 2010
Messages
699
Location
London
What if you only have a landline phone of the old type that text messages cannot be received upon? When we moved here last year, this is what came with the house and to be honest, it does the job it was intended to do....make and receive telephone calls.
If I send a text to my BT landline it rings and gives the option to read the message aloud
 

66701GBRF

Member
Joined
3 Jun 2017
Messages
549
I think if you have either online banking, or can cope with purchasing online then I think you should be ok with these "new" security measures. I don't think online security should be held back due to the <1% that refuse to have a basic phone with basic text facilities. It's not some £1000 smart phone that is needed.
 

Ediswan

Established Member
Joined
15 Nov 2012
Messages
2,842
Location
Stevenage
If I send a text to my BT landline it rings and gives the option to read the message aloud
Also, if you have suitable landline handset, the message can be delivered direct to there. I have a recollection you need to do something to set that up.
 

Puffing Devil

Established Member
Joined
11 Apr 2013
Messages
2,742
What if you only have a landline phone of the old type that text messages cannot be received upon? When we moved here last year, this is what came with the house and to be honest, it does the job it was intended to do....make and receive telephone calls.

You get a voice call - not an SMS to the landline, though these are possible depending on your phone and provider.
 

crablab

Member
Joined
8 Feb 2020
Messages
772
Location
UK
It annoys me that banks and similar seems to assume that everybody these days is technologically advanced.
This is government regulation as part of PSD2 to require 'Strong Customer Authentication' (SCA) for transactions. It's not optional for the bank, or indeed yourself.

But this is only going to involve a text message to your phone. And only if you purchase online, in lieu of a PIN.
And for the more digitally enabled banks, even less :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top