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I used to bank with a local credit union, and now bank with one of the largest banks in the United States. The credit union was nice enough, but they signed up

I used to bank with a local credit union, and now bank with one of the largest banks in the United States. The credit union was nice enough, but they signed up with that mobile banking provider that many credit unions seem to use, and the usability went down the drain. I tried to find a local credit union that was not using that platform, but couldn’t. The large bank’s app is great. Also one time the credit union let someone sign my account up to pay for their car loan, because the clerk who set up the automatic payments accidentally typed in my account number, which was one off from the car loan holder’s. To their credit, the credit union was quick to resolve the issue, but it left a bad taste in my mouth that it was so easy for them to make that mistake and nothing on the back end to catch it.

throwawayboise 5y ago
I'm with a credit union. I'd never trust my phone with access to my bank account, but I use their web site. Does fine. I can check my balances, pay bills. What else do you need?
harikb 5y ago
i have a similar experience - CUs sometimes outsource too much. In mine, they outsource Statements, Transfer/Bill pay, etc to different vendors/companies. It all works seamlessly with some fancy single-sign-on...except when it doesn't. I don't know who all have my financial details.
markvdb 5y ago
> the clerk who set up the automatic payments accidentally typed in my account number, which was one off from the car loan holder’s. Were you just extremely unlucky, or doesn't your bank account number have a proper checksum builtin to prevent this?
- michaelt 5y ago
  Credit card numbers, bank account numbers and suchlike often only dedicate a single decimal digit to the checksum which severely limits their ability to detect errors. And if numbers are getting keyed in tens of thousands of times per day across a large business, and mistakes happen hundreds of times a week, a checksum that catches 95% of errors will still let tens of errors go undetected every week.
- swearwolf 5y ago
  I realized after I posted this that account number is ambiguous in this context. It was my membership ID number at the credit union, not the bank account number itself. Their membership numbers were nine digits long and you would use them to identify yourself when you interacted with the a credit union representative over the phone. When I spoke to the support agent about that mystery car payment they said, “It looks like your member number is 649345121, and the real owner’s number is 649345122 so they must have mixed it up on the paperwork.” Which lead me to believe that the loan originated in house and the paperwork just asked for you membership number and which kind of account to use for the automatic payment. I guess the checksum was supposed to be the human who entered the number verifying that the account holder information matched the information on the form, but that didn’t happen in my case.
  - Chris2048 5y ago
    Given that even credit card numbers have a security number, aka checksum, it's a little silly that they just enter any id number without one, esp for things like loans.
  - markvdb 5y ago
    A significant part of the world - all of the EU, but also a lot outside it- uses the IBAN standard [0]. The checksum algorithm is mod97, two digits indeed. Very often, there are two checksums though! Also, in my native Belgium, bank payments have had automated payment processing structured messages attached to almost all {b,c}2b payments. That one contains a similar mod97 check. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number#Adoption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Num...
hardwaresofton 5y ago
Thanks for sharing these examples, pretty understandable impetus to move. What annoys me is that these are both problems with technical (mostly) solutions. The big banks don’t have magic humans that don’t make mistakes, they just have better systems that reduce error, and can fund development of better apps. I personally use only the web client of my bank, and am very happy with it, but will admit that the mobile banking app is less than desirable. Wish they would all just make PWAs and call it a day.

throwawayboise 5y ago

I'm with a credit union. I'd never trust my phone with access to my bank account, but I use their web site. Does fine. I can check my balances, pay bills. What else do you need?

harikb 5y ago

i have a similar experience - CUs sometimes outsource too much. In mine, they outsource Statements, Transfer/Bill pay, etc to different vendors/companies. It all works seamlessly with some fancy single-sign-on...except when it doesn't. I don't know who all have my financial details.

markvdb 5y ago

> the clerk who set up the automatic payments accidentally typed in my account number, which was one off from the car loan holder’s. Were you just extremely unlucky, or doesn't your bank account number have a proper checksum builtin to prevent this?

michaelt 5y ago
Credit card numbers, bank account numbers and suchlike often only dedicate a single decimal digit to the checksum which severely limits their ability to detect errors. And if numbers are getting keyed in tens of thousands of times per day across a large business, and mistakes happen hundreds of times a week, a checksum that catches 95% of errors will still let tens of errors go undetected every week.
swearwolf 5y ago
I realized after I posted this that account number is ambiguous in this context. It was my membership ID number at the credit union, not the bank account number itself. Their membership numbers were nine digits long and you would use them to identify yourself when you interacted with the a credit union representative over the phone. When I spoke to the support agent about that mystery car payment they said, “It looks like your member number is 649345121, and the real owner’s number is 649345122 so they must have mixed it up on the paperwork.” Which lead me to believe that the loan originated in house and the paperwork just asked for you membership number and which kind of account to use for the automatic payment. I guess the checksum was supposed to be the human who entered the number verifying that the account holder information matched the information on the form, but that didn’t happen in my case.
- Chris2048 5y ago
  Given that even credit card numbers have a security number, aka checksum, it's a little silly that they just enter any id number without one, esp for things like loans.
- markvdb 5y ago
  A significant part of the world - all of the EU, but also a lot outside it- uses the IBAN standard [0]. The checksum algorithm is mod97, two digits indeed. Very often, there are two checksums though! Also, in my native Belgium, bank payments have had automated payment processing structured messages attached to almost all {b,c}2b payments. That one contains a similar mod97 check. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number#Adoption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Num...

hardwaresofton 5y ago

Thanks for sharing these examples, pretty understandable impetus to move. What annoys me is that these are both problems with technical (mostly) solutions. The big banks don’t have magic humans that don’t make mistakes, they just have better systems that reduce error, and can fund development of better apps. I personally use only the web client of my bank, and am very happy with it, but will admit that the mobile banking app is less than desirable. Wish they would all just make PWAs and call it a day.