I loved the free transfers and how easy it was to send someone money. The efficiency of Dutch banking left me in awe. I remember specifically a banker telling me while I was opening an account: "Oh, and we don't use checks here. We like it that way"
"Random readers" are pretty awesome as well. I kept mine after I moved away.
America needs to catch up.
It feels very odd going to the US where you have to sign with a pen when paying by card (rather than chip-n-pin).
The fun part is that that signature doesn't seem to do anything. It used to be that occasionally the cashier would check it against the signature on the back of the card (years ago), but now they never do that. They seem to have stopped asking to see my ID in the last few months as well... so now I can just swipe my card (or presumably someone else's card that I "found") and draw a smiley face on the signature pad, and that's it.
Recently, an engineer I work with (I work for Simple) asked if we could add an image of the signature to transaction metadata in our web and mobile applications. I thought it was a neat idea, so I started asking around, but was dismayed when I found out that the whereabouts of electronic signatures was completely unclear.
Can any network or point-of-sales people tell me if the signature is being transmitted? Stored? Analyzed?
The two things that helped were 1) being patient, and 2) carrying a pen.
The thing that didn't help was having a British accent and an American credit card...
I have a Wells Fargo credit card that has a chip in it, I just haven't bothered to try yet.
Has anyone else seen these readers?
Info: https://www.abnamro.nl/en/prive/slimbankieren/edentifier2/ve...
Picture: http://www.abnamro.nl/en/prive/slimbankieren/edentifier2/vis...
A problem with them is that somebody can install a program on your computer that intercepts the code you enter, and then makes a different transaction than the one you intended to make. In this sense SMS based tokens are safer, because the banks send the amount of money and the recipient in the SMS along with the code. If a program was installed that changed the recipient and/or the amount, you'd be able to detect this in the SMS because then the SMS would display the wrong recipient and/or amount. On the other hand, your smartphone can nowadays be infected too, which those key generators cannot be...
This is exactly why I don't do auto payments. Would you rather fight to get your money back from a utility bill mess up, or refuse to pay it before it is fixed?
This costs the company money and a lot of paperwork, so the threat of doing it is often enough to get them to sort themselves out.
Too: even when getting a direct deposit authorization for an account, you are almost always (US) also allowing withdrawals from your account, in the event the depositor claims they made a deposit in error.
Increasingly, banks seem less secure and more porous when it comes to holding my money.
I don't pay any bills manually; all of them (utilities/heating/electricity, mobile, internet, kindergarten, insurance, creditcard invoice) happen automagically - I just review online how much was paid and how much I have left :)
I typically spend about 1 minute per month paying bills.
People pay each other through bank transfer in the Netherlands and can expect to receive the money on the same day (if sent before noon). On top of that it doesn't cost money to do a transfer.
I've already gone to a bank more often here than I would in the Netherlands in a whole year. Setting up recurring transfers for example, or transferring to someone in another state is just difficult via online.
In other words: there is definitely room for improvement here, America has been held back in banking