333 - Online-Banking-And-My-Fortune

In a way, I suppose I’m fairly lucky. A common complaint brought up whenever I advocate the use of an alternative browser is that one site or other — that is essential to the person I’m recommending the browser to — doesn’t work in a browser other than IE. This is especially prevalent with online-banking sites, I am told. (Usually, upon visiting such a site, one is told to “upgrade” to a “more secure” browser. Don’t get me started on that, we’ll be here all week.)

Anyway, why does that make me lucky? Because both of the banks I use, Lloyds TSB and The Halifax, work without any problems in Firefox and Opera. Halifax did have some problems with Opera at one stage, but that was around two years ago and I haven’t had any problems since. My sincerest thank-yous to those banks for allowing me to use software of my choice.

I thought for a while whether I would really contemplate switching banks if I couldn’t use a bank’s online services. For me, this would be fairly simple as I don’t have any complicated setups with my account. The question is: if the online-banking site of one of the banks I use stopped working tomorrow, would I change banks?

I think that I would probably not; I’d just stop using the online-banking and have to visit the banks more often (thus costing the bank more money, but that’s by-the-by). This is because online-banking is convenient, but I could live without it. I would, however, when I finish my degree and look around for a new account, definitely ensure that my new bank provided an online service I could use.

In conclusion, I’m therefore fortunate my bank offers online-banking I can use because I’m too lazy to switch to another bank at the current time! While we’re here, take this as a minor advert for Lloyds and Halifax from me.