Community

In ten years of using internet banking I have never, ever, received a phishing attempt addressed to me by name - they are always dear customer. My bank sends e-mail addressed to me by name and also provides my postcode.

I'm quite happy with my bank security. If people are foolish enough to respond to e-mails that are not addressed to them, then they have to face the consequences.

You obviously joined in a different City to me. Whilst 'My word is my Bond' was prevalent in the late 60s and throughout the 70s, many of the bankers that I met were just as morally bankrupt and without conscience as those today. There was large scale stagging of new issues on the stock market (the Guiness affair was in the mid 80s and was a common event - the Guiness people just got caught). I was party to the discovery, in 1977, of a bet that had gone wrong by a foreign exchange dealer to the tune of £3,500,000, a huge sum then. All that happened was that he was sent packing. He was not prosecuted.

The same things are happening today as happened in the 60s and 70s. The difference is, once they are discovered, senior manangement find it much more difficult to sweep them under the carpet. The regulations in place and instant communication make it that much more difficult.

Mel Haskins

Dear Bo

Dream on. As someone who voted in a referendum in the 1970s in the UK to join the EEC, I did not sign up to the EU. The only way for an integrated Europe to work is political and fiscal union.

There is no united Europe because each country has it own philosophy of life. The whole idea of the EEC was a free trade area. What is wrong with that and why do we need political and fiscal union?

Mel Haskins

As a UK company, wouldn't it be great if they had a centre of excellence in the UK.

So what is wrong with PayPal?

A survey of 1500 adults out of a total UK adult population of 40,000,000 is miniscule. I find it very difficult to believe that a fair cross section of geography, age, sex, occupation, etc., was included in such an exercise and therefore take the results with a pinch of salt.

Having been an adult for more than 40 years I have never been asked to participate in any survey, so I may be biased.

Mel Haskins

Ian

The Florida Turnpike in South Florida has built 10 exits where no cash payment is accepted. You cannot leave the freeway at these exits unless you have bought a pre-paid electronic tag. The main toll points have reduced their cash payment booths from 20 to 4, since 80% of all traffic on the turnpike has a pre-paid tag. It is only a matter of time before you will be excluded from being able to use the turnpike if you do not pre-pay.

An example of cash on the way out.

Mel Haskins

As a Nationwide customer who has banked with HSBC, Lloyds and Coutts I concur with the survey - Nationwide outshines all of them by far.

However, I take issue with Which!'s consideration of free security software. Nationwide offer exactly the same free security software as HSBC. If you install it, it takes over 90% of your CPU usage and slows the machine down to a grinding halt. And I do not use bottom of the range PCs.

You should be wary of free software. You get what you pay for.

Mel Haskins

I'm not sure that I understand the comment from Keith Richbell in Sydney.

My concern is not how to pay, but the risk of Visa billing my account without my approval.

If I review my monthly statement from Visa and find items on it which I have not bought or approved, how do I contest these purchases if they have been made by someone (not me) waving their card over a contactless device?

I want the option of having a card from Visa that does not allow contactless payment.

Mel Haskins

Will VISA give those of us who are non-believers an option to have a non-contactless card? I do not want one. Does this mean that I have to give back all of my VISA cards?

The last thing that I need in a busy life is an arguement with a faceless organisation to discuss whether I used a contactless card at a specific location on a specific date, when they say I did and I say I didn't.

Mel Haskins