I have found that the internet can be a very useful way for me to keep on top of my various personal banking activities. Today I tried to set up on-line banking for the company. It was an ordeal.

I had tried to do this about six months ago but was put off by the forms that needed filled in and the cost. However, the last time I visited the bank manager he informed me that the service I wanted to use on-line, viewing account information, was free. So I sat in his office and filled out the forms. He sent this away and about a week later I received my registration code. However, the registration code wasn’t enough for me to register for the service. I had to ring the bank and get another secret code and would have to provide security information to prove my identity. Why couldn’t I have been given these codes whilst I was in the bank? Anyway, I rang the bank where I was re-directed to another department, asked to type in my registration code, was then re-directed to yet another department who asked me for my registration code (again) and for three pieces of security information. But I still didn’t have a secret code. To get this I had to provide three pieces of new security information that they would use in case I ever decided to ring again!

The most irritating thing about this whole process was that no-one I spoke to in the bank knew why I was ringing. Even though I phoned the number given to me in my registration pack I still had to explain to everyone I spoke to why I was ringing. And as for having to tell someone my registration number when I had just typed it into the phone…

When I finally had the two codes I required I went to the web-site to see if I could register. To do this I needed to download an applet onto my machine. This probably means that I will only be able to access the information for this one computer. I also had to provide a password to use when I wanted to access this site. This is a normal requirement for any web site but in this case they wanted the password to contain at least four words!

I know it is important for internet banking to be secure but it also needs to be usable.