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Level 1

39 points

Safari disallowed by First Direct UK (HSBC) electronic bank - work around?

First Direct, a large UK internet banking service reknowned for its customer service, has just upgraded its security. There are many additional security checks (this is good) but now when you try to get to the secure site the message that Safari is not supported comes up and you are pointed to the Firefox website. The site will still work with old versions of Internet Explorer for Mac. First Direct previously had this restriction but you could work around by using the debug menu in Safari and changing the User Agent to something else (like MSIE 5.22). Now this does not work. I would prefer not to use Firefox or IE because it is more software, more updating, more possibility of bugs and diseases, more hassl, and it upsets me that my Apple kit won't work with what I thought of as an excellent banking service. Anybody have any work arounds? Can Safari be fixed or the User Agent reporting tweeked?

Thanks. John

2GHz 20" ICBM 2Gb RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8) + MacBook

Posted on Mar 10, 2007 1:21 AM

18 replies

Gary i

Level 5

6,207 points

Mar 15, 2007 1:02 PM in response to David_ B.

I managed to speak to the IT side of First Direct this week.

He sounded a bit tired haha. Basically First direct may have realised that Mac users are quite prolific when it comes to this type of process. That is to say, I like many others on a mac am more confident to use online banking than a pc user.

so they have more mac users than would averagly be expected.

Basically he admitted that safari was not to blame, what was to blame was their software which did not work with safari, this is of course distinctly different.

Splendin

Level 1

8 points

Mar 22, 2007 5:36 AM in response to Sarah24

I emailed First Direct and enquired about transferring my a/cs to the HSBC site as that was reported to work ok with Safari. FD phoned within 12 hours saying this would be fine as they did not want to lose a customer. They were unsure whether HSBC did actually support Safari. BUT they also said that FD WILL be supporting Safari (although they could not say when). They suggested I leave my FD a/cs open in the meantime so that I could transfer back when Safari was working. They even gave me an HSBC phone number to call.

The caller also mentioned that they did not realise that Safari would not work with their site until after it hasd gone live ( presumably when they started getting complaints).

The impression I got was that they are a bit shocked at the strong reaction to their lash up. Keep up the pressure!!

Splendin

iMac core duo Mac OS X (10.4.7)

May 21, 2007 6:10 AM in response to Splendin

When I just logged into First Direct (21/05/07), I got this:

Important update for Mac Users
Mac Safari fans can now use our internet banking service. We're aware of a few outstanding issues, for example printing, but we're working to resolve these. If you experience any additional problems we would appreciate your feedback which you can send via the secure messaging within internet banking or by calling us on 08 456 100 234.

We're really sorry for the disruption and the frustration that this caused, and we're going to work hard to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

G4 500 AGP (with 1.4 upgrade) Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Safari disallowed by First Direct UK (HSBC) electronic bank - work around?