Thinking of changing banks

HSBC have brought out these new security online security devices. It generates a random number which you use to log in and verify transactions. It makes everything a lot harder. A lot harder. But hey, it’s protecting everyone so I thought I could put up with it. So while there is truth in the fact that customers will put up with a certain amount of pain in exchange for some perception of value, when there is more pain than necessary it’s time to move on.
I needed to reimburse a a friend.

1. Go to internet banking and click logon
2. Enter Internet Banking number (12 characters/numbers allocated by the bank that I cannot remember and have to write down)
3. Enter answer to security question
4. Turn on secure key
5. Enter secure key PIN
6. Generate secure number
7. Enter secure number on screen
8. Go to main banking page
9. Select account
10. Click on pay a friend
11. Enter payee details (name, sort code, account number, payment amount, payment description, transaction date)
12. Turn on secure key
13. Enter secure key PIN
14. Press yellow button on secure key to get a dash
15. Enter last 4 digits of payees account number
16. Press yellow button on secure key to generate transaction number
17.  Enter transaction number on webform
18. Click continue
19. Go to new page and get error message because I put an apostrophe in payment description field
20. Go back to transaction form
21. Remove apostrophe
22. Turn on secure key
23. Enter secure key PIN
24. Press yellow button on secure key to get a dash
25. Enter last 4 digits of payees account number
26. Press yellow button on secure key to generate transaction number
27.  Enter transaction number on webform
28. Click continue
29. Confirm payment
30. Payment confirmed

Seriously? It would have been quicker and more satisfying to jump in the car and go to my friend’s house and pay her the £11!

Apart from the fact that the process is too damn long, what was really painful was the error experience. NOWHERE on that form did it say that you could not use special characters, not even in the pop-up help. That would have been the polite thing to do. The other helpful thing to do would have been some client-side validation that checked for special characters BEFORE I submitted the form. How hard can it be?
Off to find a new bank.