It’s called MONILINK (i.e. Monilink, but shouted), and it launched today. If you’ve got a bank account with HSBC or First Direct, you can download the Monilink application to your handset, and use it to check your balance, see statements on demand, and even top-up your prepay mobile direct from your bank account.
It sounds useful, for sure. I’m a customer of First Direct, and have been using their text message alerts for a while now – they send me an SMS every Monday so I know just how little money I’ve got to spend on gruel that week. But there is a bit of a catch.
It costs 20p per balance enquiry on the new application, and 25p per mini statement – both of which are charged to your mobile bill. As a user, this seems a bit steep, considering I can do these things for free on the Internet (and, indeed, by walking to a cash machine or phoning up First Direct’s telephone banking service).
Will we pay extra for the convenience of being able to do something from our mobile phones? Monilink is an opportunity to find out, I guess.
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About Stuart Dredge
How much?
20p what a liberty!