A frugal life is an easy life!

Have you come across the "new" banking security feature, one time passcode?
Abbey banking, have restricted my account for 9 days for online banking, posting the message, "The ebanking service is off line at the moment, please try again later."

I rang them, spoke to three customer service advisors (I use that term loosely) each did not know what was happening, but arranged to investigate and call me back.
No call came back, so I attempted to log in last night and came across the page to register for a one time passcode.
Now I am all for improved security but I already have to enter a card number, passcode and registration number, do I really need now to have this?

Without registering, banking online becomes a "view only" option, unable to make transactions, move money between accounts, pay bills online, etc.
Which defeats the object of banking online I think. Of course, if I want to arrange my banking without this I must use telephone banking, which a part of the phone charges goes to the Abbey bank!

To register for the one time passcode, you must give the Abbey your mobile phone number, so no doubt we can look forward to marketing texts being sent to my phone, no doubt we will be getting cold calls from them regarding loan products, etc.
My mobile phone is nobody's business but mine!
I don't have a mobile phone for the convenience of business to force me to use it for their benefit, I pay for it, it is for communicating with my family and friends.

Why should I have to either pay a minimum of £120 a year (to run a mobile phone), to use a banking service to manage my money, or not use the "new" service and walk across town everytime I want to pay a bill or pay Abbey in phone charges for using their telephone banking service, to control my own money?
Should I choose to register a mobile number with the Abbey, then each time I use ebanking to manage my account, they send out a passcode to my mobile to enter on their website.

It is fair to say I am raging and ranting about this, I do not care for giving away my information and privacy, to a business, bank, company, etc.
I do not trust them one bit when they state they won't use it for marketing or cold calls, every other business I know of has said this and it has not been true.
Some companies even pharm your email address when you visit their website and then sell it on to other companies, have you ever tried to stop companies from using your information to market products against you?
Every tea time we get the automated call, stating "we can wipe off all your debts," my email is spammed by the likes of comparethemeerkat, even though I have never submitted an email address to them or used their business (they can call it price comparison, I'd call it a business that makes money from all of us and increases our premiums).

Then we have the security aspect - look at how much of a "success" chip and pin has been!
Billions of pounds to implement the system, everyone sets up codes etc, and yet when the figures come out, fraud on credit and debit cards is at record levels.
Banks have even refused to pay out thousands of customers because the thief has managed to aquire the victim's passcode, so the bank pass the buck and blame the customer.

The onus is always on us the customers, to change and do things differently. Banks are greedy money making institutions and nothing else!

Other posts:
Abbey online banking nightmare
Abbey banking farce continues