Ask YC: Does anyone know of a bank whose online account doesn't suck?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=258520

by jonnytran • 18 years ago

5 8 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've used multiple online accounts for managing bank accounts and credit cards. They are all so terribly confusing and unusable.

Some assign me a completely (random) numeric user id. Occasionally, the website goes through a revamp, and it seems like it always turns out worse than it was before. Some attempt to allow me to link multiple accounts (e.g. checking, savings, etc.) from the same bank into one login, but that feature never works for me.

Am I just using the wrong banks? Or are they all like that?

arockwell• 18 years ago

In my experience they're all pretty mediocre. Of the banks I use, Discover has the best website. Its not overly bloated, and they make it easy to file customer service requests online.

I think that Citibank has an extremely confusing site, and Capitalone is not much better.

My local bank has a halfway decent interface, but it has a very dated look and does not have very many features. Sadly, the lack of design beats out most of the other bank's over complicated designs.

lutorm• 18 years ago

ING's ok, I guess online-only banks should be more on top of it. USAA also, you can even deposit checks by scanning them. (The last remnant of a system that should have died decades ago!)

simianstyle• 18 years ago

I switched from BOA to Sovereign recently and I've been pretty happy with their online banking so far. However, I don't really use it for super intensive tasks (paying bills, etc).

riahi• 18 years ago

Wachovia's online account manager isn't bad. It's not flashy, but it shows transactions and can do ebillpay.

alaskamiller• 18 years ago

I use USAA and it's by far the best online bank in terms of the website features, customer service, and account features.

gaika• 18 years ago

everbank is mostly ok, you can even link up accounts from other banks.

sh1mmer• 18 years ago

Barclays in the UK is reasonable. They have a stupid long number as a "membership" number, but you can retrieve that online with a few personal details I can remember.

The security is then a password (select 2 letters using drop downs) and pin with an optional 'calculator' based using your debit card (not helpful if you don't have it with you though).

Once inside the features are good. Repeat payments are simple. Paying to a new provider who is a business is pretty easy with their search function. The statements are alright although I wish the display options were a bit better, and included a search for specific transactions. It would also be good if they made more than 3mo of statements available (like, DB sharding, hello!).

Finally while they do export to a few formats that have allowed me to update iBank on my Mac I wish it were possible to have something automagic that didn't require me to login in by hand at all. Possibly that breaks banking regulations in the UK, though.

lsemel• 18 years ago

Chase is fine. You can link all your accounts and Chase credit cards in one login, set up automatic payments and transfers between accounts, and get all your statements as PDFs. The main screen is a bit confusing and poorly-designed especially when you have lots of accounts, but otherwise it is pretty functional.

Ask YC: Does anyone know of a bank whose online account doesn't suck?

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