current accounts with online banking and NO TIMEOUT?

Natwest allow you to disable the timeout when you log on.

Well of all that I have tried so far (probably half a dozen or more of the high street big names, de-mutulaised building socs, and some of the internet only ones) I would say that Barclays have the best online front end by far. You can do most stuff relatively easily. However they do have a timeout[1] of about 10 mins or so IIRC.

[1] As I am sure you are aware there are technical reasons for only maintaining a web session for a relatively short period of time - especially if you plan to do it for lots of sessions. You will quickly run out of server resources if you do not take care.

It's my bank and it is unusual in working fine with my RISC OS browser. Which is handy as I use a RISC OS prog for my accounting.

It doesn't stop the session timing out, it just means that they don't blank out the currently displayed page when it does timeout.

I find this annoying too. It's just that with most banks the timeout seems to be a bit too short. 20 to 30 minutes would be more reasonable.

Chris

Although most banks will have a timeout I find LloydsTSB about the best site.

Their current accounts also pay a good (in today's terminology!) rate of interest up to a balance of 2,500. More than twice as much as my online Alliance & Leicester savings account!

Rob Graham

AFAIAA, Barclays is the only online banking website that works with Javascript turned off. IMO that makes it the only online banking website that can be called secure. It also only uses a few images.

Natwest (almost) works with images turned off[2] which makes it about

10x faster than with images turned on.(>9s ->

I've used First Direct since it started and it's excellent. It also has the advantage that there's a voice service as well when problems occur. The staff are friendly and they do not have to work to time limits on calls. FD has had a chance to develop its user front end over several years and I like it. I think they are doing a try it type offer at present.

Peter Scott

HSBC Business pops up a little window after about 10mins of inactivity before it logs you off. You have buttons with options to remain logged in, log off now or it will log you off after 30 seconds anyway. Don't know if HSBC "Domestic" works the same way.

The time out is essential IMHO. People just cannot be trusted to log out when they have finished. The times I've come across an unattended works PC left logged into the network and logged into somewhere else is far too frequent. I could have bought loads of things on eBay or written interesting things on peoples Face Book pages... I've yet to come across an open bank account login but I have found the you have been "logged off page".

It does. You get a 30 second or so timeout, during which time you can click on a button to reset the main timeout.

Ain't just banks. The number of companies that lose your order/basket if you pause for a few minutes is huge. I could put up with having to login again (or use some password to reactivate a session), but losing the list of carefully identified and chosen items is enough to make me want to go elsewhere. And, if possible, I do.

What compounds the annoyance/irksomeness factor is that you are rarely, if ever, told that this happens.

I thought shopping baskets were cookies. Mine seem to stay intact, even if I don't go back to the site for a few days

They might be. But try going to 7dayshop and putting a few things in your basket. They will disappear after a time (not sure how long). Other sites are worse - but that one I remember have caught me out several times. :-(

The Axminster and Screwfix ones are quite sophisticated. And do not lose items.

Indeed - also why do most of these designers use 'must have' latest bells and whistles on what is just a working site? Perhaps they'll have to take more notice of those who don't have the latest PC now that mobile phones are being used for browsing.

They don't all work that way but yesterday I went to an angling supplies site that still had a couple of items in My Basket from a couple of months ago where I hadn't completed the sale . I was puzzled at first why I was buying £64 worth instead of the £27 I expected. :-)

They are, but you can set timeouts on a cookie.

Do you want someone randomly inserting cookies into their browser and trying every online bank till they find one that matches, and that is still 'live'..

With a stateless protocol, there is no way the banks can tell if you are still online, or if its someone else using your cookies..and cookies can be read by any site you visit..in theory. Though browsers are getting clued up to that one.

The trick is to use a persistent cookie for the shopping basket, and only use a temporary one for the checkout.

Like its no big deal if someone steals your trolley before its been checked out.

Its when the trolley has our credit card details stamped on it..

Once the items are in your basket they should be reserved for you so other people can't buy them.

If you don't check out after a while someone should come round and empty all the unattended baskets and but things back on the shelves.

Owain

Some will also have different behaviour depending on if you are logged in. CPC for example - if you log in an add stuff to the basket and then leave it - it will time out, log you out, and clear the basket. Log back in again later however and it will restore the basket. So it seems they track the basket centrally.