[LINK] sydney water bill payment

[Craig Sanders]

On Tue, Oct 23, 2001 at 06:58:49AM +1000, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> At 09:37 PM 22/10/01 +1000, Bob Bain wrote:
> >  They conveniently keep records of whom you've paid in the past using
> >B-Pay so that if use the pull down list-box it will not only inform
> >you of the B-Pay code for Sydney Water, but also the associated
> >account number details (or credit card details if paying a credit card
> >debt)....

i pay nearly all of my bills using BPAY with bendigo bank's internet
banking. it works, it's easy (the bpay & account numbers are printed on
every bill), i can set up a list of regular payees (with bpay & account
numbers).

it's very very convenient.  i can pay almost all of my bills in 10
minutes from my desk rather than rushing around from the bank to the
post office to wherever.

best of all, bendigo bank's internet banking uses plain html without
java or javascript or flash or other crap. it works in any SSL-capable
browser. (this was one of the reasons i switched from ANZ a few
years ago - they broke a perfectly good plain html internet banking
system by putting in stupid javascript crap - including javascript
code that rejected my randomly generated 16 character password that
had worked perfectly with the previous version. the new version
only allowed letters and numbers, not punctuation characters in the
password...idiots!)



> This is an interesting topic.  I've not done the online BPay with
> Westpac, but I have used the phone version.  Bob's comment about
> keeping the prior info is problematic with at least one account I pay
> this way.  Can't remember which, one of the utilities.  The problem
> is that your PERSONAL number changes with each billing!  So you end
> up listening to the whole pay process, then having to enter a new
> personal acct ID, then having to listen to the whole pay process again
> to be sure you put in the 15 numbers correctly.

telstra.

the only annoyance in the whole process is that telstra changes the
account number on every bill, so i have to override the account number
field every bloody time. this is stupid, and prone to human (typing)
error. typing in and verifying the new account number takes most of the
above 10 minutes.



> Second point.  EFT from an account.  I just did sign up for internet  
> banking with WPB [really the Bank of Melbourne which I always         
> preferred because it wasn't one of the big four, but got taken over   
> so I feel hoodwinked once again and tell them at every chance I get   
> when something is screwing the customer again and again.]             

try bendigo bank.  i switched to them from anz several years ago for
exactly that reason.

they're still a bank, but they're not the bastards that the big banks
are. in fact, they're quite human and very helpful. they even ring you
up and ask you to deposit money in your cheque account if one of your
cheques is about to bounce - the bastard banks will just gleefully
charges you $30 and the first you hear of a problem is when the payee
rings you up to abuse you.



> So much for efficiency. They are quite intent on being problematic.
> They have me in tears at last once/quarter because they can't seem to
> get it right.  Sure glad I have an alternate account with the Bendigo
> Bank who really do try to help. <-- blatant plug

ah. you know what bendigo are like then. vote with your feet. don't
forget to tell WPB exactly WHY you're leaving.

i'd never go back to any of the big banks.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>

Fabricati Diem, PVNC.
 -- motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch