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tarkin2

Perfect is the enemy of good.

Also, you can use the bank's website for most tasks.

I think most non-techies could happily do this.

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In Europe at least the banks website won’t function if you don’t auth with their app.

I live in Europe and I can use my bank just fine without their app.

I've read somewhere that some banks will let you use their SMS 2FA as long as you haven't already used their mobile app.

Cool, good to know. When I first moved to Ireland you could get a hardware code generator too but I don’t know if that’s still a thing

Still a thing with some of the Finnish banks, as I've recently learned. In my bank it costs ~20€ - unless you can't physically use a smartphone, in which case it's free. But you kinda have to know that it exists.

> unless you can't physically use a smartphone

Like, because of a disability, or because you don't have a smartphone? In the latter case, would it work to just go to the bank with a dumb phone?

or if you work in a highly controlled location like a prison, and aren't ale to bring in a mobile phone

I think it's either. With Nordea, it's seemingly based on whether you are already using the mobile ID app or not.

They also have a different "Talk Device" that is specifically meant for people with disabilities and such, which is supposedly free to get once (80€ for replacements), but the page doesn't specify who can order it.

Barclays use both the physical hardware code generator in the UK as well as a virtual version in the app. The Bank staff also use the same physical hardware in the branch so I guess it will stay around for a while.

I use my bank's card reader to authenticate in the hopes that it will signal a need to keep supporting it. But the vast, vast majority of people just use a banking app so I fear it's a lot cause.

Probably if you threaten to close your account they'll also change it. But you have to be willing to actually close your account.

I also live in Europe, and can use my bank in a webbrowser.

I used their App previously, and can just switch back to using the website, after authenticating via both sms and e-mail.

Huh, a Dutch one? ING perchance?

ASN:

https://www.asnbank.nl/service/browsercode.html

In Spain at least you can. I know 4 or 5 banks that let you auth via SMS, coordinates card, etc. If yours doesn't, I suggest that you complain. Some colleagues had to call theirs and insist that the bank's application didn't work on their phones. Reluctantly at first, they eventually changed their method to SMS.

The interesting thing about SMS is this isn't always usable while traveling.

For example my phone provider has really overpriced international fees ($10 / day) so instead I use an eSIM which usually only comes with data. That means I lose the ability to use text messages or phone calls for any form of verification. A number of banks and other sites also block Google Voice / VoIP numbers.

The problem is that one essential app being unavailable can outweigh the other 95% of the phone working perfectly

Capitalists know how to hook up the intended audience. Just disallow people to use their money with any FOSS OS. RMS is crying.

It's called a card. Get a phone case with a pocket. Put the card in the pocket.

RMS is still having two reasons to cry even in your case.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If my bank wants me to run proprietary shitware, they can supply me with their proprietary secure processor to run it on, and we're good.

Also the bank card is really part of the bank system. It doesn't do anything else, and it has to interoperate exactly as they want it to. While I may feel the right to hack on it, I'd do so entirely at my own risk. It's probably better that I don't mess with it as long as it fulfils its purpose. I can use my own device for my own stuff.

I feel the same way about ISP modems (not routers). As long as I get an Ethernet port and the modem isn't doing anything untoward, I don't see any problem with letting the ISP's network termination equipment exist inside my house. Some people think there should be a right to hand off the connection as DSL or fiber and buy your own modem, and I think you should be allowed to do that at your own risk, but I don't think the ISP should have to support it. Particularly with PON fiber or CATV, it's actually a bit dangerous to let the customer use random modems as it's a shared medium with half your street and you wouldn't want to jam them.

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