UPDATE: The original audio for this show had a problem (overlapping tracks) so I’ve re-uploaded it here.
We hate banks. (see my recent poll) It’s true. You know it. I know it. The only people who don’t seem to know it are the banks themselves. Although, I suspect they DO know it – they just don’t care. They’ve had an effective oligopoly for so long they think they can just say and do whatever they want and we’ll just sit here and take it.
Well I’m not taking it anymore. I’m going to do a series of shows exploring why we hate banks so much and what the alternatives are. We have a voice. Let’s use it to change things.
Today on the show I interview three people – Jen Storey from Online Banking Review, Mike Jarocki from Credit Card Finder, and Owen Davies, Group Manager, Corporate Affairs, Bendigo Bank, the bank that Aussies seem to actually like a bit.
Show sponsor:
The reason for the payment delay is fraud, the type that happens when someone steals your id and password and breaks into your online banking account. The banks have invested a lot of money in fraud detection software that trawls through all the payments to assess which ones “look” fraudulent. These are then investigated by people, if you have ever received a phone call that asks – “Did you really make that payment?” or “Did you use your credit card in this shop?” then this is the result of the fraud detection software.
The problem with this was that the money had often gone by the time the bank detected the fraud so they introduced a deliberate 24 hours delay on payments to new payees while the fraud detection process runs. That way the bank had a chance to put a stop on the funds.
This delay has led to a significant reduction in online banking fraud which has saved the banks a lot of money.
What about local credit unions? Do you think they suffer from (or cause) the same problems as banks?
Pace, check out my follow up show where I chat with Credit Union Australia and ME Bank:
http://gdayworld.thepodcastnetwork.com/2009/07/01/gday-world-386-banksters-part-2/