On the whole, the revised Lloyds TSB online banking site is ok. I can’t say it’s a vast improvement on what it replaced, but it could have been so much worse. The recent revisions to the BBC news website spring to mind, which have made what used to be an easily navigable site into something that is much harder to use. As a consequence, I’m finding I’m using the Independent’s website more and more for news these days.
However, there’s one feature of the new Lloyds TSB Internet banking site that is driving me nuts. Statements can now only be obtained with the most recent transactions at the top of the page – the opposite order to the previous version of the site and more importantly, the opposite order to the paper statements they’ve been sending me for the last 30 years. Despite that they claim:
We have added some new features and we have redesigned the screens but don’t worry we haven’t withdrawn any tools or functionality from the previous Internet Banking and it is as fast and secure as ever.
… they justify this irritating change in their FAQs as follows:
Why are the transactions on my statement listed in reverse order?
By reversing the order, your transactions are presented as a continuous list, rather than as individual statements. You can go back as far as the record allows. When customers access online banking, they are usually more interested in recent transactions than in events that happened some time ago. Our new design always keeps the most recent events at the top. We completed extensive customer research as part of the design and development of the new site and the new designs were enthusiastically received by our existing online customers. The feedback and suggestions we received helped to shape the site you see now.
Now, I agree that it’s useful, sometimes, to see the statement ordered in this way. But I also use online banking to see what I’ve spent in individual transactions since I had my last paper statement – which is now frustratingly difficult to achieve. From a usability perspective, this is ridiculous, as it can’t be technically difficult to allow the customer to choose which order they’d like to see their transactions listed in – the traditional way or the new way. They could even provide something that would be of real use – being able to group transactions by type. For me, it would be really useful to see my direct debits grouped together.
But no. They’ve gone for the PR defence, rather than admitting they’ve messed up. If you talk to their call centre about this (as I did), it’s obvious they’ve had a reasonable number of complaints about this change.
A plea to the bank’s management – please acknowledge and fix the problem – don’t pretend that your customers asked specifically for this change.
Rant over – I’m going back to working on avoiding getting a suntan.
Ah well, ’tis only a foretaste of what we can expect over the next couple of years from the banks I suspect. Not too long after they took over Halifax they improved the ATM facilities of the Halifax by removing bill payments and account transfers. Although they’ve not, so far, removed the cash deposit facility I’m sure that’s coming as Barclays did that a while back on “upgrading” the Woolwich services. Worst in their case was a savings account with decent rates and a visa debit card which was “improved” to one with rubbish rates and a card that could only be used in Barclays UK machines (of which there were FOUR in Northern Ireland at the time!).
It’s a shame that they always downgrade to the lowest common denominator in terms of functionality.