When I first got to the UK at the top of my to-do list was to get a bank account. Aside from it being nearly impossible without having any bills in your name at an address (this is harder than it sounds) I finally got an account with Lloyds. Why Lloyds? They had a nice font. Differentiators The biggest thing I noticed when I was bank shopping was the lack of differentiation between them. »
On my recent trip to the UK I had some trouble making payments using cards. This is nothing new as banks routinely block transactions they deem suspicious, and as a result ask you to notify them of any planned travel. If they know you will be in the UK over a period, and a transaction gets processed in the UK, it isn’t suspicious. If you are in the US and a UK transaction comes through, it is. »
Over the past week I’ve put in quite a bit of time looking at the next step in the banking project. One of the more pressing issues I’ve been wanting to get done is real world payment integration. This post is a follow up to a previous post. The goal The end result I am aiming for is quite simple: to let Alice pay Bob from their mobile. Alice could also request payment from Bob, and Bob can pay Alice without having a user account on the system. »
As part of of my project to build out banking infrastructure I needed to create something “above the line” to showcase the functionality. Since the functionality has been implemented and stabilised, I have been deciding on the best way to show what can be done with this, outside of command line client commands to a server. The options for showcasing this functionality came down to two initial choices: a web application, or a mobile application. »