But it’s okay, because everybody reads every line of every EULA and you can decline them if you want to.
remotely to collect any files or other information from your computer
Lolwhut?
By reading this comment you agree that all your base are belong to us.
My bank asks me to install Rapport every. single. time. when I log on to their website. It wanted to install some hijacking crap into the browser, so i said no thanks and purged it with fire. Geeks will avoid this nonsense, but I feel for the average consumer; it’s just another day for you and me in bankers’ paradise.
My credit union is so primitive. They just keep my money safe and give low-interest loans.
In the UK, Coop is as ethical as they come. And they do ask you to install Rapport.
I like Rapport by Trusteer. It provides lots of good security functions for all my sensitive sites, not just banks. While that EULA clause may be unacceptable, the software is in itself very useful and effective, which is no doubt why IBM bought it.
I think the Coop has always had pretty terrible technology, though.
And these days, now that it’s basically an asset on a hedge fund’s balance sheet (thanks to spectacular and corrupt mismanagement) it’s hard to call it ethical.
I’ve been a Co-Op customer for 7 years and I just hate it. I pay genuinely shocking fees to send and receive non-EU funds (relative to other UK banks), the cheque processing fees for US cheques are sky-high and beyond, the online banking is dreadful, and they have terrible branch hours. And they’re owned by a hedge fund. Every time I add up all the money I’ve given them in fees for a month, I ask myself, “Why shouldn’t I just do all my banking at Barclay’s? If I’m going to pay through the nose to enrich a terrible corporate overlord, why choose the Co-Op hairshirt?”
Yorkshire Building Society offers me the Trusteer Rapport download+install every time I click on the Login button. And I’ve never felt inclined to go for it. YBS don’t seem to mind. I login about once a month for one transaction and seem to do just fine without and - call it the fallacy of failure by imagination if you will, but - I can’t see how anything could improve the experience of what I do. Short of providing more virgins.
Sounds like we need to at least keep a virtual machine dedicated for accessing anything tainted by Trusteer Rapport.
There’s a phrase I didn’t expect to see again.
As do Santander business accounts.
I don’t know if there is a UK bank that isn’t a pain in one way or another. Apparently Handelsbanken are supposed to be decent, but I have not had any direct experience with them.
I’d be in the market for a decent bank, both for personal & business accounts, but they all seem as bad as each other.
Before I left the country, I wanted to move from NatWest, probably to the Co-op.
Is Nationwide still going? They were always supposed to be alright. All the building societies used to be okay, until they converted into banks.
In the US, I’m delighted to use a local credit union.
Nationwide are still around. The reason I have stuck with my Santander account for as long as I have is that it used to be an Alliance Leicester account, and I can do most deposit/withdrawals at the local post office. I’m in there every day, and the nearest town isn’t exactly packed with choice!
Maybe with the (slight) shaking up of the retail banks there will be a chance for better things to come along.
@doctorow Cory, (and anyone else who deals with multiple currency transactions), check out http://www.xe.com/xetrade/. I’ve been using them for six-seven years now and couldn’t be happier.
Specialist forex firm that makes its money from the spread and charges no other fees. If you both send and receive money via ETF, there are no fees at all. For bank drafts and wire transfers, their fee is about half of all the banks I’d dealt with.
I don’t know what kind of banking you do but I have a personal account with First Direct and have been very impressed. My favourite thing about them is that when I call it usually doesn’t even ring and I’m talking to a real, UK-based person.
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