[nzlug] Linux-friendly banks in NZ?

[David McNab]

On Fri, 2008-05-02 at 13:01 +0900, Andrew Errington wrote:
> On Fri, May 2, 2008 12:44, David McNab wrote:
> > On Fri, 2008-05-02 at 15:22 +1200, Mark Foster wrote:
> >
> >> How're your online banking credentials stored and read into the script
> >> for authentication purposes, David?  Sounds a bit risky...
> >
> > I would prompt for them with a dialog box. With this, the risk should
> > not exceed that of accessing online banking via a regular web browser.
> 
> Who is 'them'?

'them' refers to the credentials, namely userid and password.

> This is not really about being 'linux friendly', it's about being techie
> friendly.

In the OP I mentioned that BNZ provide for automated statement
downloading, but only via a BNZ-$upplied application which only runs on
non-free OSs.

> What you are doing (I think) is trying to script something for
> someone so that they can press a button and get their data.  Since there
> is no single standard for this you will have to make a bespoke solution
> for every bank that your clients use.

I was just asking if anyone knows of a bank that might have an easier
interface for this than other banks. BNZ is hell in that direction
because of their 'netguard' barrier - where they issue you a plastic
card with a matrix of characters and ask you to type in 3 of those
characters given the row/column co-ordinates (which are given as
graphics, not as text).

> Unfortunately, logging into online banking is an all-or-nothing
> proposition.

Yeah, don't I know it!

>   Once you have logged in you can get the transaction data
> (which is what you want) but you can also send money, pay bills, open term
> deposits etc.  It seems to me that you need the bank to provide a subset
> of these facilities (i.e. transaction data only) which perhaps needs only
> a lower level of protection.

Correct.

> Have you tried actually talking to the banks[1]?

Yeah, spoke to BNZ. They told me I had to pay wads to get their 'PC
Banking' application, then pay more wads for a special access account
for it, then install a non-free operating system so I can run it.

> Since you are asking
> about all banks then it would seem that you have no compunction in moving
> to the bank that provides what you want.  The other way of looking at this
> is to stay with the bank you have if they are receptive to your
> requirements.

So far they won't even let me get far enough through their management
jungle to talk to whoever might be in a position of authority to
consider such requests :(

> However, since your clients have to log on to the website (and suffer the
> byzantine security measures) for other banking operations, why make a
> special case for this?

Jeez, I just want a SOAP or XML-RPC over https gateway for downloading
statement data. Even if they could just email me a PGP-encrypted daily
statement in CSV, QIF or OFX format, that would be perfect and I
wouldn't even need to log in at all.

Cheers
David

> [1] Remember, you are their customer.  They serve you.

ROFLMAO