We'd lose our security certificate if we allowed pasting • Hacker News Board

Re: We'd lose our security certificate if we allowed pasting

#221

Post by mcv » Wed, May 07, 2014, 9:15 AM UTC

nknighthb wrote: post #174

mcv wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we have a misunderstanding of the meaning of "wire transfer" here? Surely you can just send money to someone else's account through the bank's internet banking website? How else do you pay for stuff like rent, and, well, anything, really?

No. You cannot. Rent is usually paid by check, though poorer people who may not have bank accounts of any kind often use cash, too. Large-scale landlords (corporations renting many units) sometimes take credit cards or be able to setup automatic debit from a bank account. Obviously this sacrifices a good deal of control and if they screw up (intentionally or otherwise) you get to deal with all sorts of shit. "Electro…

Okay, this explains quite a lot about the state of US banking, and why credit cards are so popular there. In Netherland, almost nobody uses credit cards, because they're less safe and more expensive than our other options. The only reason I've got a credit card at all, is to make international online payments. Even for domestic online payments, we've got a much better system. But internationally, there's nothing. Just credit cards.

I do get the impression that the US should be a great market to start a more modern bank and compete all the crappy old banks away. I'm sure all internationally operating banks have tried this. So why are they not successful?

Re: We'd lose our security certificate if we allowed pasting

#222

Post by nknighthb » Wed, May 07, 2014, 11:32 AM UTC

mcv wrote: post #221

nknighthb wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. You cannot. Rent is usually paid by check, though poorer people who may not have bank accounts of any kind often use cash, too. Large-scale landlords (corporations renting many units) sometimes take credit cards or be able to setup automatic debit from a bank account. Obviously this sacrifices a good deal of control and if they screw up (intentionally or otherwise) you get to deal with all sorts of shit. "Electro…

Okay, this explains quite a lot about the state of US banking, and why credit cards are so popular there. In Netherland, almost nobody uses credit cards, because they're less safe and more expensive than our other options. The only reason I've got a credit card at all, is to make international online payments. Even for domestic online payments, we've got a much better system. But internationally, there's nothing. Jus…

The US is huge and diverse. Many of our states are larger than many European countries. California's population is about the same as Poland's, New York's is a bit bigger than the Netherlands/about the same as Romania.

But for more than two centuries, the US has, by Constitutional mandate, had one integrated market. Changing banking in the US means changing more than 300 million people, millions of businesses, and thousands of financial institutions with enormous inertia.

There is no way to do that quickly without Congressional intervention. Which brings us to gerrymandered congressional districts and half the country cleaning guns and stockpiling ammunition every time a new law is proposed that isn't to force the religious right's (im)morality on the country, especially when the law might cost anyone other than their political opponents money in the short term, no matter what the long-term benefits are.

There's a reason every minuscule step the US makes toward real health care reform is a big deal, decades after the rest of the western world had already figured it out.

Re: We'd lose our security certificate if we allowed pasting

#223

Post by NateDad » Wed, May 07, 2014, 11:46 AM UTC

mcv wrote: post #221

nknighthb wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. You cannot. Rent is usually paid by check, though poorer people who may not have bank accounts of any kind often use cash, too. Large-scale landlords (corporations renting many units) sometimes take credit cards or be able to setup automatic debit from a bank account. Obviously this sacrifices a good deal of control and if they screw up (intentionally or otherwise) you get to deal with all sorts of shit. "Electro…

Okay, this explains quite a lot about the state of US banking, and why credit cards are so popular there. In Netherland, almost nobody uses credit cards, because they're less safe and more expensive than our other options. The only reason I've got a credit card at all, is to make international online payments. Even for domestic online payments, we've got a much better system. But internationally, there's nothing. Jus…

It's mainly a result of the morass of outdated banking regulations in the US.... any "new" bank would have to follow the same rules and would end up with the same problems.

Re: We'd lose our security certificate if we allowed pasting

#224

Post by Kudos » Wed, May 07, 2014, 8:36 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #193

Kudos wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. I wonder what their brute force protection is like, but I'm not going to go pentesting the login of a company I'm in the same legal jurisdiction as.

Well if you don't cross state lines, they're less likely to get the FBI involved...

It's an Irish bank, which means I won't be crossing any state lines ;)

Re: We'd lose our security certificate if we allowed pasting

#225

Post by lurkinggrue » Wed, May 07, 2014, 9:33 PM UTC

tzs wrote: post #218

lurkinggrue wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they have a web front end that goes over to an old mainframe.

I don't buy that as an explanation for ridiculous password limitations. It is true that mainframe timesharing systems often had password requirements that are considered weak by today's standards. However, there is no reason for bank customers to even have accounts on the mainframe. Bank customer accounts have nothing to do with mainframe user accounts. There is no good reason for any mainframe password restrictions…

I agree but it wouldn't surprise me if they did it all wrong and were just passing credentials.