Scripting News: Best online bank?

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Best online bank?

A couple of years ago when I started using my bank's online system to pay bills, I was in awe. How much easier and faster it was than paying bills by hand. What used to be a chore that I put off and as a result paid late fees, and my credit rating suffered, had become a pleasure. My queue of unpaid bills was never very deep or very old.

Now the thrill is wearing off, I'm a homeowner with a mortgage, and a business owner, which means I have two checking accounts and all of a sudden my bank's online system isn't working so well. Things that would be easy if the software were designed by Google or Yahoo isn't so easy. For example, I have to use two browsers, one set up to pay bills from my personal account and the other to pay from my business account. I haven't been able to figure out how to choose an account any other way. I've tried repeatedly to convince the bank that I don't live in Massachusetts, but there are all these replicated copies of my address in their system, and they keep presenting the wrong address as the default.

So I decided to check out Consumer Reports on this subject (you must be a member for that link to work) and they don't yet rate banks based on their websites. I suspect this will change soon.

Anyway, I thought I'd ask you to share your experiences. You don't have to name the bank if you'd rather not for security purposes (as I am) or you can use a fake name so you can name the bank without risk. I'm just interested in getting an idea if my experience is bad or typical or good, for 2007.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:41 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

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Mar May