BANKING APPS? MIST ME!

For weeks now, banks and building societies have been unceasingly pestering to convince me onto their banking apps. Apps? Mist me!! I’m still using chip and pin!

High Street banking has gone the way of the dodo. It’s the classic chicken and egg situation – what came first, online banking or bank branch closures? All I can say is that we are ALL to blame for the death of banks on the High Street so stop your moaning.

Where did all the dodos go?

Yep, if it hadn’t been for us gullible customers jumping onto the online banking bandwagon like a cocker spaniel on heat, Aunt Ethel would still be able to pop into her local branch to collect her pension in cash. It’s a simple case of cause and effect. No good crying over spilt milk. Use it or lose it. The banks knew well enough what the end game was from the off, having studied human behaviour for decades. We just fell into their trap – couldn’t help ourselves, could we?

Banks have been cleverly manipulating customer behaviour in a bid to shave millions off their bottom line and continue to do so, forcing us all to go paperless or use apps in the name of progress. What they fail to understand is that:


a) not all banking customers have smartphones or want one

b) people often live in areas with poor mobile phone signal

c) some customers are technologically challenged

d) no-one wants to drive miles to a ‘full service’ bank or banking hub

e) hacking or cyber-crime is rife


And that last point is ultra important because if cyber-crime is increasing then how is persuading more people to bank online going to provide better security for you or your funds? 

Banks have long been complaining loudly about having to automatically reimburse punters when fraudulent transactions occur. It’s the bank’s view that we are all in some way negligent if fraud occurs so why should they cough up? And yet isn’t forcing us all onto websites or apps that could be tampered with deliberately exposing people to unscrupulous criminals through no fault of our own?

Can banking apps keep out criminals?

I might sound like a techno-dino but I’m quite happy doing my banking using that thingy called a laptop that has a proper keyboard and a large screen. I can at least see what I’m doing plus less danger of typing in wrong numbers with sausage-like fingers. Ooops! I meant £10 not £1,000. Duh!

Please, please, please – spare us from this unnecessary App evil. I want to be an i-phone leper, I don’t want to be ‘cured’. Mist me!

Rock on Randy Glasbergen