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I completely agree;

http://bluedeckshoe.com/2012/10/15/are-you-who-you-say-you-are/

Good post, although I think you probably have two or three blog posts in one. Requirements are absolutely key and the Pareto rule normally applies. 80% of the value will come from 20% of the requirements. I believe that agile development is the key to making sure that the right requirements get the limelight.

Thanks for your comments.

The card companies got through to my wife because I was in the Apple store at circa 6PM Vegas time and I as I said - the fraud department doesn't wake up until 9AM UK time. At that time - I had switched my phone off to get a good night's sleep.

Thanks also for all the suggestions about various point / niche solutions. If any of my card operators have these technologies - they are not telling me about them. I would welcome a more industry wide approach.

By the way - I can make a paypal payment from anywhere. We could do with someone upsetting the oligopoly of Mastercard / Visa / Amex.

I think airlines went too far and started to charge for things that you couldn't actually use the service without - so they were bound to fail the "fairness" test!

Thanks for the reply. Maybe we should start up Lend-Us-A-Few-Quid-Till-Payday.com!

If we are talking about the same financial institution, then the charges will be levied at those customers who have a "basic" account. The owners of these accounts tend to be those that are less fortunate and less credit worthy amongst us. This is just another example of how we make life harder (and sometimes more expensive) for the people at the bottom of the ladder. 

Thankfully - it looks like any bailout package will not include the UK (over and above any obligations under the IMF).

Looks like Greece will be OK at least until the next ratings agency decides to downgrade when I guess everyone will need to dig deep again.

Round and round the merrygoround goes.

Thanks for the comments. There is a UK survey which posts how satisfied users are with their bank. One particular institution does very well every year and several large banks do very poorly. It tends to be the same ones, so why isn't there a mass exodus in favour of the bank offering better service? Just how much do people value good service?