Having just spent half a day trying to set up new bank accounts to replaceour Coop Freeflow which they're closing in a few weeks (recent threadpassim) I've realised one extra desiderata (desideratum?) - that theonline banking interface doesn't automatically log you out if you go offto get a cup of tea, go to the bog, answer the phone or are just slowtyping. I don't mind if it locks me out and wants some credentials to getgoing again (like a screensaver with password to unlock - I've got that onmy PC anyway) but this evening I just tried to set up a joint account forme & SWMBO. First logout happened when I came to the terms & conditionspage. It was obviously designed only for speed-readers, or those whoblindly click 'accept' to anything without reading it. By the time I'dgiven it a reasonably cursory scan the damn' system had timed me out. Butat least I hadn't got far along with the application at that point.However there's a page where you've got to enter a great scad of personalinformation plus your 5 bits of security information - in duplicate! I gotthrough that OK but then they want the SO's. Now she's barely getting togrips with pooters at the moment - can just about log in and google forwhat's on at the flicks. By the time she'd entered all the info theywanted their system had given up and gone home. I mean, FFS, this was 'smile' (I didn't :-() who are part of the samesodding bank, the Coop. All they've got to do is authenticate that I amwho I say I am, and that she is who she says she is, and pass over theinfo they already have on the old account to set up the new one. Whatcould be simpler than that? But no, I expect the money they could haveused to get some clueful IT people to make a flexible workable system gotspent on fuelling some pony-tailed 'creative' types' cocaine habits toproduce a cute little pink arc that resembles a smile, for a logo.So what banks have sensible web interfaces that aren't a total PITA?

Natwest allow you to disable the timeout when you log on.

current accounts with online banking and NO TIMEOUT?

Feb 02, 2009 46 Replies

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Jonathan Bryce 17 years ago

I've come across a few. If they use ActiveX or VBScript, they won't work elsewhere.

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John Stumbles 17 years ago

Yes, that was the version I meant. It didn't work. It was by Microsoft. Quel suprise ;-)

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Andrew Gabriel 17 years ago

I've helped a number of people get online with Internet banking, and I'd have to say that Barclays is probably the best, and working with any browser is one aspect of this, but they haven't compromised any functionality to achieve that -- indeed quite the opposite - they are one of the most functional Internet banking interfaces.

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Pete Verdon 17 years ago

I do remember seeing IE on Solaris once when I was at Uni. It was mostly as a curiosity; no-one actually used it for real as it was even worse than the default Netscape 4 (and that's saying something).

Pete

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Pete Verdon 17 years ago

I quite like the TLC one too.

Pete

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Richard A Downing 17 years ago

Try parcelforce.com (ParcelFarce). R.

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Huge 17 years ago

What about it? Works a treat in FF on Linux both natively and pretending to be IE7 on Vista.

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