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alexkemp

Member

Registered: 2018-05-14

Posts: 372  

Virgin Money Refuses Help to Provide Desktop App

I recently moved my bank from NatWest to Virgin Money (VM).

VM did their best to persuade me to download & use their mobile app but I refused. I'm an old codger & have lost 2 mobiles in my time. The police now refuse to accept any responsibility for lost items and, since mobile updates are few & far in between, I simply will not trust to store my financial details on a mobile phone.

VM do not have any equivalent of their mobile app for the desktop. I very recently had a bright idea…

I'm fully capable of programming in python. If I could get the VM text code for the mobile app I could (relatively) easily produce a Python program from it, perhaps even using AI in the process to do the bulk of the cross-conversion, and then tidy it all up by hand. VM could then have by return a desktop app that would work under any desktop OS.

I had cause to go into the Nottingham city-centre VM office this morning (Saturday 12 Sep 2026) to pay an invoice, and put the above to the service lady & got a number to contact head office. The response was: absolutely not. And it gets worse.

During the phone conversation with VM HQ it seemed from their responses that the reason for the refusal was that VM were placing company "secrets" into the text code. I have zero idea as to what those precisely were, but got the firm impression that they did not want me to see them. Jehoshaphat! but I hope that I am wrong in that, as they could easily be extracted from the app code.

Anyway, it seems that I can still not use Devuan to administer my bank account from my desktop, and nor will that change anyday soon.

Ron

Member

Registered: 2018-04-22

Posts: 623  

Re: Virgin Money Refuses Help to Provide Desktop App

If I were in your shoes, I'd find another bank again. Something smells rotten with what you described.

alexkemp

Member

Registered: 2018-05-14

Posts: 372  

Re: Virgin Money Refuses Help to Provide Desktop App

I'll take your advice under advisement, Ron, until I receive further confirmation.

NatWest was the first bank I met (or National Westminster Bank, as it was then in 1967 when I was 18), and all the banks that I have met then & since have been stupid beyond any reasonable excuse. I left NatWest because they have ceased to pay interest on positive balances. VM *do* pay interest, even if not much.

pcalvert

Member

Registered: 2017-05-15

Posts: 324  

Re: Virgin Money Refuses Help to Provide Desktop App

Android can be installed on a number of different devices besides phones. That being the case, one option would be to create an Android-based desktop-like system by installing LineageOS on something like a single-board computer (SBC) or a small Android TV box.

Check out the LineageOS wiki to see what kinds of devices it will run on:

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

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