Another credit card problem.

[2987pl]

But with a well designed mobile, you know that anyone who steals or finds the phone can't use it.

[Jethro_uk]

Anyone can write an "app". And anyone does. With zero quality control.

Last time I looked properly, most "apps" were simply packaged links that generated ad revenue. So you'd be looking for a tool - say something to investigate networking. You'd look for "network tools" in the Play Store, and the first few hundred were simply "This app will tell you how to set your network up". When downloaded and run all it does is take you to a webpage with a PDF. Or Wiki ....

That's before you get to the fact that the fragmentation of Android means you've a 50/50 chance that the app with barf anyway.

From what I've seen of SWMBOs iPad, Apple aren't so different either.

[Jethro_uk]

You can lead a horse to water ...

[Jethro_uk]

You're starting to act like a punter, here ...

It's less common, but it is possible to deliver 2FA via email. So you try to log into the protected site, and it sends an email with a verification code in it to the registered email address that you read and enter to proceed. Which if you are using something like GMail, with a web client, means you can do everything from your browser.

It's also possible to get 3rd party authentication dongles (many organisations issue them) which can be kept on a keyring.

All of that said, it seems you are painting yourself into an edge case where it's unlikely any setup will be perfectly suitable. In which case you will have arrived my friend, in "the modern world". Where nothing is perfect, most things are "OK", and it seems most people are quite happy with the shittier aspects.

[Jethro_uk]

Anecdata suggests the supplied card-code reader/generators are standard and interchangeable. Several people reporting that one supplied by one bank works with another. A rare example of common sense in life.

[Jethro_uk]

Whoa, whoa .... "Limited company account" ? Obviously people are free to talk about what they want to. But until now, I was assuming that discussion was around *personal* banking provision. Business banking is a completely different area and (from personal observation) can vary tremendously from personal banking in all sorts of areas ......

[Jethro_uk]

Yeah, there will always be edge cases ...

[Jethro_uk]

And what else are their apps up to when they are sitting on your phone ? Quite aside from consuming memory and power ... All you've done is shift your trust, not liability. And if the website can be spoofed, so can the app. The key signing is essentially the same.

[Jethro_uk]

Paypal do (with the note for pedants that Paypal may not be a "bank" to some ...). Well "insist" is a bit strong. They allow you to set it up, but don't mandate it.

[Jethro_uk]

If you have a VOIP account, you can make phone calls via WiFi.

[Jethro_uk]

Quite a lot of whatiffery going on here ...

from anecdata, bank supplied card readers seem to be interchangeable. Moreover (certainly for Nationwide) they are only needed if you want to send a payment to a previously unknown payee. If you want to make a payment to a regular payee, it's not needed.

You can also login without it, if you provide additional login details, if you have set them up.

Given that most people can do much more now than they could have ten years ago - albeit in a disjointed and unsystematic way - finding (and looking for) cases where it all falls down seems a little Meldrewish IMHO. And given how much I can whinge myself on these forums, that's saying something :)

[Chris Green]

The HSBC one is different, you don't slot your card into it as with the others, all it requires is for you to enter a PIN. As you say the other banks' card in the slot ones are interchangeable, even with European banks' ones (I have a BNP Paribas one which works fine with UK banks like Lloyds).

[Chris Green]

... and it's much easier to lose your 'phone or get it stolen than your home desktop computer.

[Chris Green]

Yes, it's possible and would be ideal for me but most 'other ends' won't do it, they insist on sending a text.

So, no 'edge case' just wanting the banks to do what you're suggesting above!

[Steve Walker]

Good! I have pro on our desktops and I actually let them update whenever they want, but I only have home on my laptop. The laptop is rarely used (only for music, email, films and browsing when I am away a couple of times a year or for car diagnostics) and every time I turn it on after a couple of months, it updates. I have only turned it on because I have something to do then and that requires the laptop; it is a slow, old machine, the updates take 30 to 45 minutes each time and the machine is unusably slow while it happens. It is incredibly annoying.

I do want to keep up to date, but I'd much rather trigger a manual update when I have finished what I am doing and am putting the laptop on charge to top it back up.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

And where will they send it? To your home email, which you may not have access to while at work, other than by your mobile phone that has no signal - and we are back where we started!

Yes. The problem is that each bit of added security makes it that much harder for some people to be able to use the facility easily and no-one should be completely prevented just because they cannot use a mobile phone.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

Not all banks provide that facility though.

Except of course that in the past you could nip to the local branch in your lunch break and sort out anything face to face, now many of the branches have disappeared and it means taking time off to travel further afield if you cannot do it online.

SteveW

[dennis]

Well a banking app will only store the information needed to verify the app to the bank.

It may store the user id if you ask it to.

A computer stores lots of information in the web cache which few people delete after a session. Either because they don't know how or because its inconvenient.

There are "secure" browsers that remove the cache stuff automatically but few use them AFAIK.

Then there are other places stuff may be stored on a computer like the paging file if someone really wants information. .

[dennis]

Same as my laptop.. encrypted disks, etc.

[Jethro_uk]

And you know this as a certainty how ?