OS-Independent Web Banking?

Posted by Cliff on Saturday October 21, 2000 @05:19AM from the the-internet-isn't-all-mac-and-windows-you-know dept.

kalaleq asks: "My bank, Toronto Dominion, recently updated their Web banking application. It was already dependent on Netscape or Internet Explorer, I believe, but now it is dependent on later versions of the same...and limited to the Windows and Mac platforms. Theoretically the site should work on Netscape for UNIX, but seemingly due to some minor JavaScript incompatibility, critical functions no longer work on that setup. I wrote TD early in the year asking if they could fix this apparently minor problem. I received the reply that they did not support Linux, but were looking into it as they recognised that Linux's popularity is growing. It is now almost a year later, nothing has been done." Any bank that is willing to lose customers over a "minor JavaScript incompativility" is a bank that is not worthy to hold my money and I would recommend that people consider this small fact. Would some of you care to recommend a replacement bank with a decent (OS-independent) online presence?"

"I recently wrote again, and received no response at all, even though I mentioned that I would be writing an editorial for Slashdot, whether I could report a happy ending or not. That happy ending seems to be out of reach now. I even offered to contract to fix the problem myself.

The big question is, is there any bank with a good Web banking component that geeks can rely upon for good cross-platform support? TD's site is not only incompatible, but it relies on all sorts of client-side JavaScript to do things that could 99% of the time be just as easily done on the server side in PHP, CGI, ASP (which they are using now - another questionable decision), etc. Ideally I want to be able to log in from a text console using lynx and do my banking... and it seems to me with a little planning there's no reason I shouldn't be able to do so.

Another, broader question that comes to mind is this: Who makes the technology decisions at the big banks? These companies influence our daily lives to an astonishing degree, since they control our financial lives. When my bank decides to change their Web site to make it incompatible with my platform of choice, it really leaves me floundering. Who is responsible? What consulting firm is recommending these unfriendly, unnecessarily glitzy, and altogether unsound choices? If they're unaware of the needs of their less-than-mainstream customers - betraying a certain lack of thoroughness - can we really trust their security decisions?

Practically speaking, I'd like advice on a new, geek-friendly bank, if indeed such a thing exists. Preferably somewhere I can do my banking in a text-mode browser, but at least somewhere committed to supporting the most common graphical browsers on *all* platforms. For myself, the other requirement is that the bank be Canadian, though I think discussion of banks in other countries would be very interesting as well. The good thing about TD is that they have a no-fee minimum account level, which is convenient; a geek-friendly bank with a good service plan to boot would be ideal.

To be fair to my bank, I've been reasonably happy up until now. However, my inability to get any satisfaction on this matter has forced me to consider a move, if a better alternative exists."

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