I commend the simple topic of this blog. We've probably all been there and know what you are talking about. But there are many more desperate and vulnerable people out there who get screwed over by these 'services'. For the life of me I cannot see why so called celebrities will put their smiley faces to these shoddy businesses.
Devils advocates will say you have a choice. You can clearly see the costs involved. Noboby forced you? But when traditional banks drop you, where do you go? Bank of Mum/Dad might not be there (seems to be the current default lender these days to get banks off the hook and borrowers off to a start (e.g. first time buyers).
Maybe the government can offer a 'crisis loan' service at fair rates and without the stinging small print charges if you hit issues. It could be administered through the Post Office and provide a new transaction for them to keep more branches open. I'd rather fund the cost of running that business than pay for the policing or jailing costs when desperate people turn to crime to pay the loans off.
btw - www.Lend-Us-A-Few-Quid-Till-Payday.com doesn't exist. I tried it !
26 Nov 2011 10:30 Read comment
Its nice to have a view but if its anonymous its only a comment ;)
Still v good to have as Finextra needs more.
25 Nov 2011 03:50 Read comment
All news things start somewhere - and this small substance is still significant imho. Better to have all that growth potential.
18 Nov 2011 10:43 Read comment
I sometimes wonder where they get these round numbers from. I think they factor unquantifiable costs such as 'lost business' over the development period which is not the same as hard cash costs. Its a lot.
18 Nov 2011 10:40 Read comment
Perfectly balanced assessment.
Lets hope the banking backends are speedy enough to allow smartphones to complete banking sessions without running out of battery!
I use the Amex Android app - very convenient. My bank doesn't have an app yet.
15 Nov 2011 12:00 Read comment
Nice idea. I am sure there is an attack approach for that one too. I normally ask the 'calling bank' to provide some information about me before I enter into IDing myself. If they cannot or do not, they sometimes offer a call back number I can use to ring them (doesn't often help the problem unless its the one I know). Why not ask them to list a transaction from your account (assuming you haven't had a paper statement intercepted?).
Better still - a push alert from your bank to your mobile phone, prior to the call to pre-notify the incoming call - very easy to do and encourages use of mobile banking alerts or registration at least. Even this can be spoofed and made to look genuine when it is not however.
Hmmm... why are they calling me again?
11 Nov 2011 12:11 Read comment
btw - a very good summary of the various terms, stakeholders and NFC models likely here:
http://www.mobeyforum.org/Press-Documents/Press-Releases/Business-Models-for-NFC-Payments-white-paper
06 Nov 2011 23:56 Read comment
"Innovation obviously implies a change for the better"
But better for who. Sometimes innovation is needed to make something better for your customers, which doesn't obviously make it better for the FI (in the short term) and the mid/long term benefits must be considered to show that taking less now, will be better in the long run compared to the alternatives. Especially in these times - taking less, not more, from your customers is the winning formula.
06 Nov 2011 20:05 Read comment
I do my fair share of dogdy site browsing, and fortunately it seems my virus protection is working like a condom. I am more concerned with the access we allow to mobile apps and their resulting automatic updates - who knows what these programs are scraping and achiving from our 'always-on and not protected' mobiles. Even the security apps look pretty suspect to me. In fact, any program, mobile or PC, which you explicitly 'allow' to run because you believe it to be from a 'safe' provider - your virus detection will not detect anything wrong with that. What's the alternative - don't install anything?
06 Nov 2011 17:27 Read comment
Disagree. From what I can see, it's the large incumbent Card players (Barclaycard, Mastercard, Visa especially) using their established infrastructure to dictate the pilots and trials. The only emerging disruptive niche player appears to be Square, and good luck to them. Despite mobile companies being global too, they tend to operate on a regional basis, and that's why there are many regional MNO consortiums have emerged around how they will play in a NFC/wallet solution.
06 Nov 2011 17:10 Read comment
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