Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Online Banking Tran(suck)tion


Recently, I decided to activate the online banking feature of my ATM card. What prompted me to avail of the said service was the fact that I had to monitor certain transactions in real time. Since I cannot wait for the monthly bank statement to arrive, this provided a way for me to be updated. And considering how paranoid I am when it comes to online transactions, this decision was a big step for me.

So I log on the bank's website and started filling out the form. From the onset, I had a bad feeling about the decision I'm making. The apprehension was not because the site was not secure (it was) but because I was being asked to give an eight character minimum-sixteen character maximum alphanumeric user name and password. Knowing how my memory works, remembering the user name and/or password I chose was a problem waiting to happen. But I really needed to have real time access to my bank statements so I continued answering the form.

When I finally filled in all the information that was asked of me, I pressed the submit button and was shocked. A message was displayed congratulating me that my application has been completed and that I now had to go to the bank to have it activated! It was at this point that I became confused. Wasn't the point of having an online banking feature to save time and effort for the customer? Had I known that I would still be required to physically go to the bank, I would have just gone there in the first place and save myself the trouble of answering the online form. So much for making life a bit simpler.

So as of this writing, I have yet to got to the bank and avail of the online banking services of the bank. And yes, I have forgotten the user name I chose.

- Gino Paulo O. Uy

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