Is it really safe to do your banking online?

BANK online? You must be joking with the TSB chaos and then the Visa systems failure. Computers are so complicated that just a slight glitch can bring them down. The banks spend thousands telling us how great it is to do our business online, but they don’t warn us of the dangers. If you switch from TSB, you may be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

DEREK W. EDGE, Macclesfield, Cheshire. DURING the Visa crisis at the weekend, supermarkets and petrol stations would only take cash. But the banks are still telling us we are heading towards a cashless society. They need a Plan B.

BRIAN BEST, High Wycombe, Bucks.

WHILE I’m sorry so many people had their lives thrown into chaos, I have to confess to a certain feeling of satisfaction. I have a credit card, but rarely use it, preferring to pay with cash or a cheque. I wouldn’t dream of doing my banking online. Those who do only contribute to the demise of local bank branches.

G. SIMPSON, Scunthorpe, Lincs. WE ARE heading for a cashless society, like it or not. George Orwell predicted a time when the state would monitor our every movement and expenditure — that’s the reality of internet transactions.

SIMON MEYNELL, Sheffield.

THE Visa outage should give us pause for thought about our overreliance on the internet. I hope this reflection will extend to HMRC, whose digital tax plans will compel all but the smallest businesses to use Cloud-based accounting packages from next year. How safe will this new system be from online fraudsters?

OTTO INGLIS, Edinburgh.