UPDATE 3/7/12: So hitting the banks up on twitter went no where, they didn’t even approve my comments. I have a good disscussion going on in the “Internet Banking” group on LinkedIn if you want to join. Next step might be a reddit post or possible emailing some of the bank CSOs directly. Wish me luck.
Online banking and bill pay are two of the conveniences of the information age. I have memories of seeing my mom paying the monthly bills late at night filling out checks, opening and addressing envelopes, putting on stamps etc. She then of course had to manually balance her checkbook with a calculator. I cringe at the thought of having to spend several hours a month in such a manner, with online banking and bill pay it usually takes me 30 mins to send out the money with little or no writing or mailing. As with many conveniences, however it comes with a risk of potential abuse. Individuals certainly aren’t the only ones being victimized, especially vulnerable are small to medium-sized business who have relatively a lot of money compared to the average Joe Schomo like me and unfortunately for them they are not covered by the FDIC or the bank’s policy. Here’s a Bloomberg article from August last year that goes into several examples of theft and how the banks don’t always reimburse those companies like they do you when your CC is stolen. Bloomberg article
So without further ado here is what I humbly ask from my bank, 3 fairly quick wins that should be implemented as soon as possible. I’ll let you know if I hear anything back from them. I plan on hitting some of the bigger ones up on Twitter and LinkedIn to see if any of that social media mumbo jumbo works for me and my little blog.