Mobile Banking Apps

Jon

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Does anyone use these?

I struggle to think of a UK bank these days that doesn't have a mobile banking app of some kind on offer and I find the whole thing FAR more convenient that using the normal website and having to use a token generator to login. HSBC / Nationwide and others are happy enough with you using your finger print on your phone as ID which makes life far better.

However as much as I say all this I know probably as many people who just won't trust them (or online banking in general) and still prefer to do things in person at the bank or over the phone which I generally find a nightmare due to the fact that HSBC offshore a lot of their customer support and if you are ringing up to do anything slightly complex it can get misunderstood or something which isn't what you want when you are dealing with money etc.

Even if I go into the main HSBC branch or Barclays one in Leeds it's 80% machines now instead of people working behind a counter so banks clearly want to push us down the digital path to do the majority of our banking.

Does it worry anyone that this is the way things are going? I can't get my parents to get into online banking AT ALL as there just seems to be too much of a trust issue for them to get past and they worry about their accounts getting hacked and money getting stolen etc. and I'm not sure they will ever be able to get over that hurdle no matter how much I tell them it is safe!
 

The Reverend

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The HSBC app was (until fairly recently) completely rubbish. The banks are gradually getting them to be useful things. They have realised that a transaction done via an app doesn't need a branch or a call-centre to handle it.

I wouldn't trust a bank app on an android device - but thats just me.

They are moving to an 'automated' business model. Its low risk and is being sold to us as consumers as 'convienient'. I hate it, but then there is a cost to having a building on every high-street, and this is it. Even in London I'm seeing branches being closed down all over the shop - just Wednesday night I noticed the Natwest just off Great Portland Street was not there anymore. And a branch near bishopsgate. If I had to guess its a mixture of commercial rents and reduction in footfall. How many people live in Zone 1 compared to 50 years ago? They just don't need the branches anymore.

My parents are pretty up to speed on internet banking. The ability to check balances, move money and set things up without queueing in a branch is really useful to them. You could postulate that the reduction in branch staff was to drive people to an online model so they could reduce footfall to close down branches...but I'm not sure you'd find any internal documents at any branches with that written down....it would be 2 documents. 1 to reduce staff and then a seperate one reviewing the useage stats of branches. :)

I read something, somewhere, that it cost the bank £10 any time anyone stepped through the door. Think about the savings online has given then - they didn't do it to make OUR lives easier, they are a bank after-all!

:D
 

mabozza

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I have been using ny main BOS account on my phone for about 5 years and my RBS account a year plus, find the apps excellent, so easy to use, A lot of investment goes into the security of these apps by the banks. Understandable to be apprehensive, as it is a new and seemingly simple (meaning unsecure) way to access your money, but, TBH an app has to be 1,000 times more secure than a bank card/hole in the wall... Twice i have been caught by scammers, both times it was at cash machines... Plus anyone can stand behind you at a machine and mug you or force you to enter your pass code and empty your account... I remember when my mum was alive in the early days of E Commerce refusing to buy anything online, as there was no way THAT could be safe, nowadays we all use E Commerce as its now seen as the norm and safer than spending cash in a store, Banking apps are practically at that point now generally
 

Jon

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The HSBC app was (until fairly recently) completely rubbish. The banks are gradually getting them to be useful things. They have realised that a transaction done via an app doesn't need a branch or a call-centre to handle it.

I wouldn't trust a bank app on an android device - but thats just me.

They are moving to an 'automated' business model. Its low risk and is being sold to us as consumers as 'convienient'. I hate it, but then there is a cost to having a building on every high-street, and this is it. Even in London I'm seeing branches being closed down all over the shop - just Wednesday night I noticed the Natwest just off Great Portland Street was not there anymore. And a branch near bishopsgate. If I had to guess its a mixture of commercial rents and reduction in footfall. How many people live in Zone 1 compared to 50 years ago? They just don't need the branches anymore.

My parents are pretty up to speed on internet banking. The ability to check balances, move money and set things up without queueing in a branch is really useful to them. You could postulate that the reduction in branch staff was to drive people to an online model so they could reduce footfall to close down branches...but I'm not sure you'd find any internal documents at any branches with that written down....it would be 2 documents. 1 to reduce staff and then a seperate one reviewing the useage stats of branches. :)

I read something, somewhere, that it cost the bank £10 any time anyone stepped through the door. Think about the savings online has given then - they didn't do it to make OUR lives easier, they are a bank after-all!

:D
I agree with you that HSBC app was rubbish just a few short months ago - you could barely do anything with the thing except look at your balance.

I can well believe that £10 cost you know each time someone comes through the doors. I couldn't believe it when the Barclays in Leeds replaced the entire downstairs customer service staff with just 8 new super dooper computers that could do everything!
 

Jon

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I have been using ny main BOS account on my phone for about 5 years and my RBS account a year plus, find the apps excellent, so easy to use, A lot of investment goes into the security of these apps by the banks. Understandable to be apprehensive, as it is a new and seemingly simple (meaning unsecure) way to access your money, but, TBH an app has to be 1,000 times more secure than a bank card/hole in the wall... Twice i have been caught by scammers, both times it was at cash machines... Plus anyone can stand behind you at a machine and mug you or force you to enter your pass code and empty your account... I remember when my mum was alive in the early days of E Commerce refusing to buy anything online, as there was no way THAT could be safe, nowadays we all use E Commerce as its now seen as the norm and safer than spending cash in a store, Banking apps are practically at that point now generally
that's funny you mention about people seeing your pin number from behind. I often wonder about that in places like petrol stations where you queue up in a direct line to pay at the counter as you enter your pin number!
 

mabozza

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Thats a popular method used by scammers... place a card reader over card slot and just watch you put your pin in..boom they have full access
 

Jon

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Thats a popular method used by scammers... place a card reader over card slot and just watch you put your pin in..boom they have full access
Yikes!!

EVERYONE TO THE SMARTPHONE BANKING APPS!!!
 
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