Online banking regression

I used to bank with the Nationwide Building Society but they stopped accepting deposits of checks in foreign currencies like US dollars. ( I now use Clydesdale Bank even though their online banking is worse. )

It was with a sinking feeling that I read of new improved online banking coming to Clydesdale. Regarding my complaint some months back about mobile-tastic web-based news aggregators it probably says something that Clydesdale's new online banking appears to think that I am using it from my mobile device and, as is usual for contemporary look and feel, packs far less useful information onto the screen at once. I could live with this but ( it also removes features that I use. )

I find it unfortunate that choice of online banking interface is determined by choice of bank rather than their agreeing on some common intermediate communication protocol between customer and bank for which I could use my choice of open clients. As things stand I cannot even road-test a new bank's web-based interface without switching to them first. As online banking is a core part of modern customer experience I wonder if people simply expect far less than they should.

I shall be checking which banks have a branch in Dundee or Perth city centers and that have some basic foreign currency capability. Checking for online banking that is more information- and feature-rich than filled with simple large icons will take more effort and for all I know I will be hopping from one to the other as they successively dumb down.

More online banking

Oh my goodness, it is even worse than that. This afternoon I tried to use Clydesdale's new online banking to transfer £1,155 to one of my existing payees and it insisted that I must first do something with the bank's cellphone app. I do not want to have to install random commercial apps on my cellphone nor do I trust its security enough to let it anywhere near my online banking. Fortunately the old online banking site still exists and I was able to do the transfer with that. For transactions requiring extra security I have a physical security token device from the bank but the new site did not offer that as an alternative means. I have thus asked for how much longer the old banking site will stay available so I have a timeline for switching to another bank.