Is the Internet Banking Login process a problem?

[FAB Enterprises]

Hi All,

Just want to get your opinions on the useability of Internet Banking, notably the login process.

Is anyone fed up with the dual login process, the first asking for your username and password then a second login for memorable information? Having to work out the nth letter of your memorable information can be a bit of a pain if you want to login quickly.

I'm thinking about writing an application that simplifies the login process but just want to see if it's worthwhile me doing this or whether this is a non issue that only bugs me. I've been using a prototype for a number of years now and I use it everyday but I'm contemplating commericalising it and letting other small businesses having it. The program lets me switch seemlessly between personal and business accounts as well as other financial websites with just a single logon to the main application.

Windows Vista has an inbuilt system to do just this but it requires the Banks to update their own systems to cater for it. It's unknown how long the UK banks will take to allow this auto login if indeed they do it at all.

Am I wasting my time with this project? Do you use something similar now? Does the login process not bother you?

I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks Mason

 

[Gillie]

My banking login is not quite as you put ... for my business banking, I have a saved name and long pin number saved, then I put my card into a little machine that will then generate another number and I simply type this in, so its not long winded as it were, however, personal banking yes, its a number then date of birth, then x number and y number etc thats part of a unique number. I just love the counting thing on fingers trying to work out which number they want!

 

[DuaneJackson]

Yes, it's a little annoying, but worth putting up with for the added security. We've adopted the same process for a KashFlow login.

 

[KM-Tiger]

........... then I put my card into a little machine that will then generate another number and I simply type this in, so its not long winded.........

Both of the banks I use have moved over to a hardware security device of some sort, and I don't see them moving back from that.

Personally I would not entrust my bank login to Windows software, but I'm probably just a little bit prejudiced in that respect.

 

[FAB Enterprises]

Personally I would not entrust my bank login to Windows software, but I'm probably just a little bit prejudiced in that respect.

That's a fair comment and probably the biggest issue I would need to overcome if I did decide to go ahead with this. I would be wary of entering my bank details into such a program too if I didn't know the developer. Although I have seen ways I can improve the security of the browser that's used to access your bank account but whether this would be enough or worth putting in I don't know.

Duane, has this topic ever come up with any your customers? How do your customers react to the login process? Is the two step process overkill? If you access a system infrequently then it might not be a big issue but if do several times a day, it does get a bind. PayPal one of the biggest financial institutions on the net only have the single log on I wonder what their thinking is behind that?

Thanks everyone for your comments so far, very useful.

Mason

 

[ExpandOnline]

Egg have a web based program that does this, you enter your security details and it aggregates all your balances from various accounts from various establishments into a summary table.

You can categorise each as current account, savings, credit card, etc.

 

[Mattonella Tile Studio]

First direct already do a similar thing; think it does balances on accounts, and also email.

 

[FAB Enterprises]

That's the one and the Egg system absolutely spot on. Looks like I don't need to develop this now, I should have probably done something with this 5 years ago when I had the original idea. The banks must have thought their dual login process was an issue so they developed their own auto login for theirs and other banks. Ah well never mind, onto the next project.

Thanks