As a temporary measure, to take advantage of a too-good-to-miss “switching incentive” offer, I’m moving my current account to a legacy high street bank.
Coming from one of the new wave of “mobile first” banks, it’s been a fairly frustratingly non-optimal experience: sign up for internet/mobile banking requires first setting up telephone banking, which requires twenty-plus minutes on the phone setting up a secure banking number (basically a long PIN). Then, after registering for online/mobile banking – which involves the full set of username, “password” (actually a memorable word), and multiple security questions – you have to setup a “digital key,” with its own set of questions and passwords… which is how you actually login to the system.
It’s too many passwords/pins/questions, and it feels like security theatre. At least at the end it gives the option of Touch ID on mobile.
I’ve noted as much of it as I could into my password manager, but due to the way everything is implemented, I can’t actually use the manager… just read from it.
Oh, and of course you have to phone them if you want to add your card to Apple Pay.
With the newer bank, I was signed up with a new account, logged in, and able to use Apple Pay within ten minutes of downloading the app, before they even sent out a card. I could even set the card PIN in the app. With the high street bank, I’ve spent two hours of my weekend trying to get to the same point. I’m still waiting on the card PIN before I can actually use the account. I have a feeling I’ll be switching away again as soon as possible.
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