Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Postbank recoups with My Postbank NL

As of today, Postbank is back in the Internet-banking race. They've been out for a while, given that the off-line e-banking facility Girotel (or its on-line version) both appeared to be too dusty for the users. On top of that, fees were levied, which was quite incomprehensible in the situation that users do the data-entry for the bank. But now, with the introduction of Mijn Postbank.nl they're back.



Mijn Postbank.nl is a free Internetbased environment allowing identification with a user-id/password combination that is chosen by the users. Any transaction requires the use of a Transaction Authorisation Number. Whereas these used to be distributed in lists of 100 (via snail-mail) Postbank now offers to send these via SMS, at the moment of the transaction.



The MyPostbank.nl environment offers users a full overview of all Postbank products and allows the user to reverse a direct debit and to view one year transaction history (often a problem with Internet-banking). And in comparison with other banks, it now allows world-wide web-access and usage.



What's missing in the information is the vision of the future. I cannot imagine that Postbank will support the old off-line Girotel until the end of times. So at one point in time I'll be forced to make the conversion to the off-line world. This is not being mentioned on the website. But if you look closer it shows that it is no longer possible to apply for Girotel and that Girotel (for now) will co-exist with MyPostbank.nl.