Online banking while travelling

by **gonorth** » March 24th, 2006

What I was hoping neil was that if I'm sitting in a seedy cafe in Timbuktoo with a dodgy looking guy running the place, that I could download it straight on to his shonky computer.
If you can download to burn, can't you download straight to the PC., thanks
Greg

by **2wanderers** » March 24th, 2006

quote:
Originally posted by gonorth:
What I was hoping neil was that if I'm sitting in a seedy cafe in Timbuktoo with a dodgy looking guy running the place, that I could download it straight on to his shonky computer.
If you can download to burn, can't you download straight to the PC.

Doesn't work that way. You need to boot from CD in order to solve the security threat posed by a software keylogger.

by **Piecar** » March 25th, 2006

A couple of years ago, Belize wasn't hooked up internationally to a banking system. I found myself using my credit card all the time, and then finding a computer and paying off the bill that day. It was a pain, but I got 'er done.

by **geok** » April 6th, 2006

quote:
Originally posted by Stoo:
My bank, UBS, gives me a little gadget that spits out a unique challenge/response code every time I want to access my account. Having a username and password is not enough. This gave me great confidence with online banking on the road.

Maybe you can find a bank in Canada that has such devices?

We have something similar. Can't work out exactly how it works. Username, password plus you press a button on a little device purchased from the bank. Up comes a random six digit number each time you press. You enter it and only then can you log on.
I thought it was mickey mouse for a start but evidently there is a quick period synchronizing of numbers for your account and each set of numbers only works for a two minutes. Or something like that. When I enquired further about how it works they declined to go any further than that.
At home I just leave it sitting next to the computer which is pretty dumb given our house always unlocked (rural living syndrome) but if we travelled with it, the only risk would be losing the thing.
There is always someone working on cracking these things but feel very secure with it.
This is with a fairly minor Australian bank. Would be surprised if US banks didn't have something similar on offer.
The annoying thing with travel is the $6.00 charge for using an overseas ATM these days. Makes you think about going back to travellers cheque.

by **Stoo** » April 6th, 2006

quote:
Originally posted by geok:
quote:
Originally posted by Stoo:
My bank, UBS, gives me a little gadget that spits out a unique challenge/response code every time I want to access my account. Having a username and password is not enough. This gave me great confidence with online banking on the road.

Maybe you can find a bank in Canada that has such devices?

We have something similar. Can't work out exactly how it works. Username, password plus you press a button on a little device purchased from the bank. Up comes a random six digit number each time you press. You enter it and only then can you log on.
I thought it was mickey mouse for a start but evidently there is a quick period synchronizing of numbers for your account and each set of numbers only works for a two minutes. Or something like that. When I enquired further about how it works they declined to go any further than that.
At home I just leave it sitting next to the computer which is pretty dumb given our house always unlocked (rural living syndrome) but if we travelled with it, the only risk would be losing the thing.
There is always someone working on cracking these things but feel very secure with it.
This is with a fairly minor Australian bank. Would be surprised if US banks didn't have something similar on offer.
The annoying thing with travel is the $6.00 charge for using an overseas ATM these days. Makes you think about going back to travellers cheque.

I've just switched banks to Credit Suisse, which has the little device you speak of. My is labled RSA. Yes, it does seem to be a time sychronized device.

Pro: it's a key chain thingy, so easy to take about.
Con: No password on it, like my UBS calculator.

My US bank (Bank of Hawaii) has really limited eBanking. I've not heard of anyone in North America having such devices, but some should.

by **Grannygold** » April 11th, 2006

If you take your own laptop and find the wi fi places where you can use it for the price of a cup of coffee, do you avoid these security pitfalls? I'd really like to know. It's a big decision. To take or not to take the laptop?

by **SoloTraveller** » April 11th, 2006

I think there is a risk from online banking in cybercafes but there is a way around this.

I am currently traveling around Southeast Asia and I am carrying my own memory stick / flash drive with a portable web browser on it.

Stored within in this is my username for my bank and nothing else so I don't have to type my username. I think this is important because this gets around keylogging software.

Also my bank has a random number that I have to put in each time which makes it quiet safe.

Anyway do a google on portable firefox, buy yourself a flash drive and you are away. You can also keep all your favourites on there as well as taking snapshots of pages for offline use if you travel with a laptop

by **RalphTheWonderLlama** » April 12th, 2006

Out of interest Solo which bank are you with that gives you that random number facility? Or is it a random few characters from your pwd/pin, as mine does?

by **TheWanderer** » September 29th, 2006

we tried the boot-from-CD thing, USB key thing, and it just didn't work. either the USB thing was at the back of the machine and inaccessible, or there was no CD drive, or when we managed to boot, we encountered firewall blocks not allowing us to access the web...
I think we got it to work once, maybe twice, then just gave up.

Always cleared the cache and cookies, etc., and didn't encounter any problems.

by **Eppyboy** » October 3rd, 2006

a reasonable person standard most likely in regards to dealing with online banking in a foreign country, would be that the person would have a clean computer setup (no viruses on your computer, or spyware), made sure no one was watching him/her logon, and potentially get their password...if you take all necessary precautions that a reasonable person in your situation would take, then you are fine, most likely if that is what your bank states

by **Piecar** » October 3rd, 2006

Online Banking is the best way to take care of a shitload of problems while travelling. I've done it the last two trips and kept a lot of balls in the air.

In Belize, where there was no PLUS or CIRRUS system at the time(But now there is, mostly) I used to put stuff on my credit card, and then go immediately to a computer and pay the credit card, so I didn't incur interest. It worked out fine. The system is too damned good to pass up if you are trying to control things at home while you are away. Having some buddy holding signed cheques for you is just too much of a strain on either party..
D