Don't use favourites for bank account access?

[wickham]

I had a problem this morning using Chrome to access my bank account. I could log in and go to the payments and transfers page but the important data on the left didn't show, only the heading and option menu on the right.

I phoned the bank who asked if I had used my favorites, which I had, and she said I must never do that. I was told to log out and type the bank address into the browser address window but I had the same result - page outline but no payments menu.

She asked me to try another browser and I tried Edge which worked OK.

My main question is, is it dangerous to use favorites? I bet most people do.

Next comment - I usually use Chrome but it must have had a strange glitch to show only part of a page.

[mc2fool]

I had a problem this morning using Chrome to access my bank account. I could log in and go to the payments and transfers page but the important data on the left didn't show, only the heading and option menu on the right.

I phoned the bank who asked if I had used my favorites, which I had, and she said I must never do that. I was told to log out and type the bank address into the browser address window but I had the same result - page outline but no payments menu.

She asked me to try another browser and I tried Edge which worked OK.

My main question is, is it dangerous to use favorites? I bet most people do.

Dangerous? I struggle to see why. At worst, if your favorite is to their login page and they move that you might find it doesn't work anymore. If it's just to the bank's home page then it's no different to typing in that same address, and in any case, the fact that you managed to log in ok with the favorite but still had problems typing in the address directly rather belies the idea that the favorite was the problem.

Next comment - I usually use Chrome but it must have had a strange glitch to show only part of a page.

It does happen. If you type Ctrl-F5 (that is, hold down the Ctrl key and, while still holding it down, press the F5 key) that will cause most browsers, inc. Chrome, to throw away everything it has cached of the page and refetch the page and all its constituent parts anew.

[Watis]

The bank is probably thinking of browser exploits that can change your favorites to point to a malicious destination.

It was a thing a while back, so I would hope that browsers have been hardened against this type of attack in the intervening years.

But you can't be too careful.

Watis

[UncleEbenezer]

Could also be confusing it with browsers that remember passwords for you, remembering (and thus effectively bypassing) your login credentials.

A serious issue where it arises, but not the same as bookmarks.

[Lanark]

If you have a website bookmarked with a lot of cruft after the domain name like www.evilbank.com/kjhguygf65tiyt87t-jhgjhg766~act123
That can cause issues with the browser trying to load some cached information that no longer exists.

If you manage to bookmark just the home page like www.evilbank.com or better still with the HTTPS prefix https://www.evilbank.com
then that should be fine.

Something almost every browser seems to do these days is mix up the url box and the search box, which means that typing in a url can result in actually doing a search for the url - most of the time thats helpful but search engines are not perfect, it is entirely possible it will serve up a phished website if you just happen to be unlucky.

The only browser I know that still lets you configure a separate search box is Firefox.

[wickham]

I had a problem this morning using Chrome to access my bank account. I could log in and go to the payments and transfers page but the important data on the left didn't show, only the heading and option menu on the right.

I usually use Chrome but it must have had a strange glitch to show only part of a page.

This is still a glitch in W10 V 1903 with Chrome but Chrome in W7 shows the payments and Transfers menu on the left of the page. Chrome is V 78.0.3904.70 64 bit on W10 but 77.0.3865.120 (Official Build) (32-bit) on W7 so perhaps Chrome still has a gltich on W10.

Cookie settings allow cookies so it can't be that and I don't think Lloyds websites use Flash (blocked on both computers).

[Infrasonic]

It's probably a Javascript issue.

[mc2fool]

I could log in and go to the payments and transfers page but the important data on the left didn't show, only the heading and option menu on the right.

This is still a glitch in W10 V 1903 with Chrome but Chrome in W7 shows the payments and Transfers menu on the left of the page. Chrome is V 78.0.3904.70 64 bit on W10 but 77.0.3865.120 (Official Build) (32-bit) on W7 so perhaps Chrome still has a gltich on W10.

Well I have W10 1903 with Chrome 78.0.3904.70 64 bit and a Lloyds a/c and it all looks fine to me. On the left under a heading of Payments and transfers I have a panel containing:

Send money from
Classic Sort code Account number
£nnnn.nn Available funds £nnnn.nn
To
Select account or recipient you're sending to   Pay someone new+
Need to send money abroad? Send money outside the UK or in a foreign currency
Cancel Continue

On the right there's: CONTACT US, OUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES, SAVINGS & INVESTMENTS, LOANS & CAR FINANCE etc etc.

So, if you're missing the panel on the left it's not (just) about Chrome 78.0.3904.70 64 bit on W10 1903....

[Infrasonic]

You need to give us more details Wickham.

Are you running a completely vanilla install of Chrome browser, or are you running extensions like ad blockers et al (and if so which ones), as they can filter active content like Javascript.

Turning all extensions off and then re-introducing them one by one as an A/B can often reveal the culprit if it's extension based.
Extensions get updates just like OS's do, I've had specific site issues in the past due to that.
(Ghostery was a particular offender for me so I stopped using it on all my browsers, uBlock Origin has less issues IME and the overlap between the two meant running both was counterproductive.)

[wickham]

I also have a savings account so I tried that. The Payments and Transfers page was the same there, just the headers and menus on the right but not the important payments options on the left to select a recipient.

I tried CTRL+Refresh and the payments menu showed! I then went to my current account and payments select recipient etc. showed there. So all is OK now, but it's still strange that only a part of one page was blank, all other bank pages showed in full.

Earlier today I changed cookies to delete on exit for my bank but I don't suppose that affected the display. What it may have done is to raise the bank's extra security question when I next logged into the bank. It asked to Save this computer, which had happened a long time ago but not since so I suppose deleting cookies will raise this issue every time I log in. Does this remember the individual computer or just my IP, as I use two computers?

[Infrasonic]

So the solution was given to you in the first response you got (from mc2fool), why didn't you try that two days ago, post back here with the results and save us all who susequently posted a load of wasted time?

Without wishing to be rude,there's a pattern to your posts in this regard. You get given good initial advice, ignore it and then threads drag on for far longer than neccessary, ending up back at square one...

[wickham]

So the solution was given to you in the first response you got (from mc2fool), why didn't you try that two days ago, post back here with the results and save us all who susequently posted a load of wasted time?

Without wishing to be rude,there's a pattern to your posts in this regard. You get given good initial advice, ignore it and then threads drag on for far longer than neccessary, ending up back at square one...

... because I didn't try to log in to the bank account again until this morning. What I did do first was to do a Google search about Chrome problems with WIN10 v 1903 and found lots of reports of problems and that sent me off in the wrong direction and convinced me that the problem was with Microsoft, not Chrome.