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You might think that receiving new feedback on a bank with a "Poor" rating might see some good news come our way. Think again. Once more, feedback from a new BankDirect user disapppoints. However what is more surprising is the bank appears to be owned and operated by ASB Bank, who rate an "excellent" for their own internet banking service, of which I'm a happy customer.

RATING - POOR

Reports from users such as Rob Hay and Denis de Castro state that whilst overall the level of service is good and the site is very functional ("OK to use rather than stunning" was one comment), there appears to be no platform-specific information anywhere. Rob has previously reported issues with Safari...

"There is one page (the statement page) that extends off the right hand side of the screen (at least on a 17" iMac) when running Safari, but not when running IE for the Mac."

..and also commented that BankDirect's IT people didn't appear to want to know about this when contacted. Recent comments by a user states that they feel BankDirect is not Mac friendly, but operating systems below Mac OS X Tiger will work okay. On Mac OS X Tiger, the comment is made...

"Some facilities not available but can be worked around (e.g. no multiple bill paying but you can make single bill pays)"

I spent around 20 minutes trying to find the slightest piece of technical information on the site. When I was about to give up I decided to try the online banking demo. On the first screen, little or no technical information was provided. It wasn't until I went to the second screen of the demo (the first was 'wordy' enough to put most off) that I was told...

We have detected that you are using a web browser that supports 128 bit Server Gated Cryptography. This browser is suitable for accessing NetDirect.

Phew! I have trouble sleeping at night wondering "Do I have a browser that supports 128 bit Server Gated Cryptography"...and now I know! But wait...before you think it's all too geeky, there was this helpful information...

To use NetDirect you will need to have a BankDirect account and either Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (or higher) or Netscape Communicator 5 (or higher). These browsers support 128 bit Server Gated Cryptography encryption which protects your private information as it crosses the Internet from your computer to NetDirect. For more information visit About Security.

And for those holding out some glimmer of hope that the "About Security" link may actually have some more details about the Internet and what browser is best to use (does Netscape "Communicator" still exist, because IE on a Mac no longer does), think again.

What's more, a website that hides their 'Help' link so well on their main page and presents small green icons labelled 'Browser Ready' and 'NetDirect Ready' with no indication as to what that actually means (do we all know what NetDirect is?), deserves not only complaints from Mac users, but from everyone.

BankDirect need to stop making assumptions about the users of their site will know what the terms they find mean. For a company providing such detailed information, it is amazing how little of it seems helpful, useful or relevant to the users of the site. Instead, time and wasted effort seems to have been put into features such as the following...

We have also added a few unique features to make Banking on the Internet more interesting:
* Why not listen to the latest in music, while you bank? Choose from several local radio stations - bFM, George FM, ZM or Mai FM.

That's it...I'm changing banks if I can listen to bFM while banking! Who cares that the site gives me no technical help or indication that I'll be able to use their service. Instead I seem destined to either try myself through an online demo or find out from users of this site as to whether the system works.

Well BankDirect...we've been told that the system mostly works...but so far these people have unanimously rated your site "Poor" on the Mac Friendly scale.