You cannot talk to banks here – only to script monkeys.
My ex-company delivered 3D solution to this bank and in this case it wasn’t triggered by the bank’s card transaction system, so I knew who to contact within the bank and what to point out.
Capitaine wrote:
Handelsbanken in the UK still operate on a local level where you can talk to a person in the branch who actually knows you. Might be worth a try. When I was trying to borrow money I was very impressed by their customer service,
Handelsbanken (a Swedish bank, which is actually my bank, too) also have offices in the UK? They consistently get the best customer approval ratings in Sweden among the major banks.
Definitely 
They made a point of saying each branch is autonomous and the manager has final say; my biggest issue with my current business bank is that the manager is just the human face of computer says no.
I don’t know what kind of relationship there is between the bank (e.g. Handelsbanken) and the card provider (e.g. Visa, Mastercard) for fraud prevention. It might be a complex matrix.
One case I know the fraudster was using stolen card details to pay his electricity bill, so trivial to track down. The threshold to investigate vs. write off must be quite high, at least a several hundred, because it was never taken any further.
I think you will find that every bank operating in the UK does use SMS. It may take an hour on the script monkey call queue to get to the right level… I’ve not found anybody who authenticates 100% only over the internet, and who I would trust with any money.
In the meantime I bought a Pro Mobile Signal Booster Voice. These are illegal in the UK and probably all of the EU also so the marketing is a front in the UK and the item comes from China with a fake description. The ROHS ISO etc stuff is of course bogus; a toilet seat hinge with lead free solder will be “ROHS” too and ISO9000 is mostly fake out of China. But it works! GSM signal has gone from zero to 1-2 bars and that is without the RX antenna being outdoors (ideally it should be on a chimney pole like a TV antenna); I did it all inside the loft.
Unless you pay more you get just one network e.g. Vodafone uses 900MHz for voice and SMS.
Peter wrote:
In the meantime I bought a Pro Mobile Signal Booster Voice. These are illegal in the UK and probably all of the EU also so the marketing is a front in the UK and the item comes from China with a fake description
Mobile signal boosters are not illegal here but they do require a permit from your mobile phone operator and the particular booster model has to be approved by the Telecom authority.
Of course, everything is legal if you get a permit, but they aren’t going to get one for one of these boxes because it retransmits the GSM (optionally 4G too) signal all over the place. Our house doesn’t have another close to it (maybe 30m) but most houses are much closer.
The CE certification for an “intentional radiator” is a big process, and that applies even to bluetooth and wifi.
Peter wrote:
Of course, everything is legal if you get a permit, but they aren’t going to get one for one of these boxes because it retransmits the GSM (optionally 4G too) signal all over the place. Our house doesn’t have another close to it (maybe 30m) but most houses are much closer.
There are several approved boxes in Sweden and yes, you do get permits for them. As for the rest of the EU, I don’t know.
Do you have any URLs? This was not mentioned here before, in the context of not getting SMS messages due to a poor signal. It would seem to be an obvious way forward.
Peter wrote:
Do you have any URLs?
I have URLs to Swedish mobile operators about how to apply for a permit, also to some Swedish webshops claiming to sell approved equipment. (At least one operator also provides a list of equipment which is not approved.) The telecom agency should have a list of approved equipment but right now they have issues with their web site (including the search function) and I can’t find it.
At least “some” telco providers will happily sell/rent you “indoor mobile coverage” themselves. Here’s the page of the Luxembourg state-owned “ex-monopoly” one on this service: https://business.post.lu/independants-et-pme/catalogue-produits/mobile/indoor-mobile-coverage
I definitely remember around 2005 a Dutch university had mobile coverage problems inside a new building; again (if I remember correctly) the ex-monopoly telco was happy sell them a solution; I think they didn’t go forward with it because it would have worked only with this one network.
