Online banking is great – I would certainly find financial management a complete pain in the ass without it.
That having been said, online banking, at least as offered by AIB, but probably most of the rest of the banking sector in Ireland and the rest of the world still falls a long way short, and has failed to deliver many of the latest web technology developments to its users.
For example, why can’t I…
- …get an electronic version of my bank records? Many of the large US banks have been exporting Quicken QIF formatted files for a long time. Or better yet, how about OFX files. Or failing either of those, a simple CSV or Excel file. ANYTHING!
- …see all of my records, going back to when the account was opened? AIB online banking typically only goes back a month or two (depending on the type of account). OK, records that are only available on microfiche might be excused, but everything that’s on the mainframe in the mothership should be available at relatively little expense.
- …search my records for particular types of transactions, payees, etc.? Indexing documents such as these should be trivial in today’s world.
- …filter the transactions that I’m shown online? Just show me lodgments from my employer; payments I’ve made to the ESB, and so on
- …set up and manage simple rules. For example, when my current account balance falls below €500, transfer money from my deposit account?
- …set up secure RSS/Atom feeds for each account that would publish a record for each new transaction?
- …share certain accounts with named individuals (the wife)? On second thoughts, maybe that’s not such a hot idea.
Does anybody know of a bank that offers some or all of these services?
Tags: 3 Comments
3 responses so far ↓
Great posting. Would love to download statements to csv.
not sure Id want rss/email or anything else sprouting out of my account though - the authentication is just not there yet IMHO.
There are some grave health reasons for not having access to your spouse’s account: Knowing what she spends on shoes and haircuts could induce serious heart problems
It’s coming Steve - but of course not from the banks themselves!
See mint.com (they just announced another $12m in funding)
You’re right - we’re getting there (very) slowly. Of course mint will only work for banks that are letting them access the data (much like Quicken). I can’t see the Irish banks jumping for it any time soon.
Eamon, there are definitely security issues to be resolved, but then people said that about internet banking itself when it was first floated.