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Comment by Valodim | Hacker News Reader

Mobile apps are how most people do banking these days, and it shows. In my experience banking apps are a lot more maintained and modern than classic online banking interfaces.

So you're not just sacrificing "on the go" banking, you are likely sacrificing use of the best interface your bank offers.

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Also, most smartphones (especially GrapheneOS, iOS, Pixel, etc) are far more secure than desktops/laptops. So also from a security perspective it's better to do banking on a phone.

And it’s very hard to actually steal a cellphone since it’s always with you, whereas houses get broken into all the time.

This has to be some fascinating regional difference, because my personal experiences suggest the opposite. Would you be willing to elaborate ( in general terms/locations if too sensitive )?

I wonder if phone theft specifically hasn't (somewhat) gone down now that most are encrypted and tied to some online account by default. Maybe criminals have heard about this, and they focus on other things.

Where I live, people still carry cash (though not absurd amounts) and credit cards, and I understand that's what most pickpockets are after. Especially since, after covid, the limit for contactless payments has increased.

Burglars recently broke into my parents' house and they left the MacBook and iPads. Most informed thieves probably know that they are bound to an account, can easily be blocked, and there is no use trying to sell them.

I would assume its more and more the case with phones as well. ~10-15 years ago I heard often about smartphones getting stolen out of people's pockets, etc. Not so much anymore.

Non-Apple laptops is probably a different game.

True but you can also argue the opposite since its a lot easier to loose it and more exposed to more people that could be thieves.

Unless you use Qubes OS (which I do).

Maybe, but this is irrelevant to 99.99% of bank users out there.

It means that banks cannot say "desktop is insecure, therefore a mobile app is required for your security". I can manage my own security in a better way.

I don't have the same experience. My main bank is a huge European bank, and their app is laughably bad. You have to jump to an impressive number of screens to reach anything other than "last / upcoming transactions" lists. Many are actually just janky webviews, yet they still somehow manage to work worse than their website. Bonus points for it being "temporarily under maintenance" seemingly every other day.

I should note that the website is pretty janky itself, but at least it works fine (meaning "not worse") on Firefox on Linux, and it doesn't even pester me to change browsers or anything.

I also have an account with one of those new "online" banks for when I travel, since they have better exchange rates, and, importantly, no conversion tax. Their app is somewhat better, but they have no website whatsoever, AFAIK. But, at least, they allow me to set up a proper password instead of clicking on 6 digits as the other bank.

Is the UI really that important though? I assume most people use internet/app banking mainly to do two things: make payments, and look at transactions. I also assume most people don't do these things very often. Sure, a good UI is nice to have, but it isn't going to affect my life much if it's missing.

Sadly true, while not being a phone person, I have started using my home banking phone for tasks I used to do on my desktop. Still never leaves my office.

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