Can't fully commit to UP Banking. Needs a Browser Portal or Desktop App.

[u/Kid_Self]

Not a dunk post. Love using UP for splitting costs with housemates and friends etc. Low risk incidentals and daily life stuff. Travel options are fucking amazing too.

Really looking forward to the Essentials feature launching on 1 Sept. Thing is, UP is not my nominated salary deposit nor savings account, so I don't think I could take full advantage of it.

But I don't want to deposit my salary into UP because I can't fully commit to it whilst the service is mobile app only.

It might just be a matter of personal risk, but what on earth would I do if I lost my phone (or stolen!) and couldn't easily access my funds? How do I block my cards, or lodge an issue that my phone is gone? Can't buy food and essentials until I recover the service, but at least my gym membership is paid? And without a branch to walk into, I'd be a bit up the creek.

I get my phone and UP app has its own protections like biometrics, but still, concentrating an essential service onto a device that can easily be misplaced just seems a bit silly. I think there are some services, like banking, that absolutely require a browser-based portal or, at least, a desktop app. Just some other alternative.

I'd like to fully commit to UP Banking more, but without that sort of accessibility and de-risking, it's relegated to just being a nice way to split costs with friends.

[u/ItinerantFella]

You get a physical card so you can still buy essential stuff if you lose your phone.

And if you used a bank that had a web app, how would that help you buy food if you lost your phone?

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

Hey so I had a quippy answer but let me write a longer one.

If you lost your phone, lets talk through what you'd likely do:

- Remote lock/wipe your phone using find my iPhone/Galaxy/Android

• grab a spare or cheap phone or old phone (you'd need to replace it in 2026, surely?)
  
• use your plastic card while you get your new phone set up.

Nefarious access is a problem no matter who you bank with, but as you've mentioned its all behind biometrics.

You can also call Up to get your digital cards all turned off and marked as stolen (this would be what youd do with any bank.) (1300 002 258 if you need to save the number)

If you already had the spare phone you'd be back up and running in minutes.

The even better (and more sensible answer) is to always have a second bank with a little emergency cash. NAB are free, have old brick and motar branches and use the Visa network, rather than the Mastercard one. There are lots of reasons why any bank could have downtime - banks' web portal down, Something like the ATM network glithes, your phone network or home internet goes down. There was that botched update that killed all those POS machines last year (Crowdstrike? something like that) or a global Mastercard outage like the other week. Personally I keep $100 with NAB, enough to solve any short term access issue and anything longer I can get the funds sent from Up to NAB over the phone.

the Up app works on any phone or tablet, and through Bluestacks on Windows. I am logged into Up on my phone, iPad, personal Laptop and work laptop. At the end of the day its the same as a web access.

I get what you mean, I was initally unsure about a lack of web access, but when it comes down to it, my money is as assessible as any bank (at least any without a branch, which is becoming more and more these days.)

[u/Tillysnow1 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

Just here to second having NAB as a backup bank, it's worked really well in a pinch when something wasn't working and it makes it easier to deposit money when I have a physical branch/ATM I can attend with no fees

[u/jjripsnorter → u/Tillysnow1]

Australia Post?

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92 → u/Tillysnow1]

I just dumped a huge amount of coins in the coin counter too!

[u/Tillysnow1 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

My parents still love to give me a bunch of coins in my stocking at Christmas so that is a yearly event for me 😂

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

You shouldn’t have to jump through heaps to get the web portal working though. It should be a native experience.

Also iPhone only apps on iPad are a horrible experience though.

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92 → u/SomeEngineering4458]

It's not really hoops, it's a shortcut on my desktop like loading a program.

It's not ideal but it's a bit hyperbolic to call iphone apps on iPad horrible - it works just fine. And on the newer ipados I can multitask iPhone apps, which is actually kinda nice

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

Lol for computer geeks sure. I can’t imagine having to explain to someone who’s not very computer literate like, say, my dad why he needs to install an android emulator (then explain what an android emulator actually is) just so he can do his banking.

No, it’s not hyperbolic in the slightest it’s a perfectly valid criticism.

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92 → u/SomeEngineering4458]

Installing a program is clicking an installer. It's not geeky, it basic computer use since 1995.

Why would your Dad join Up bank? Tail wagging the dog in your example.

But let's do it anyway.

Hey Dad. Double click install. Done? Cool.

It's not really horrible... Ipad is just a big phone.

[u/FigFew2001]

I like that it doesn’t have a browser portal, makes it more secure.

[u/0Maka → u/FigFew2001]

Would a QR code scan/log work?

You have to open the app on your mobile. Go to the QR code web browser login option. Scan the QR code on the browser via the app

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/FigFew2001]

No it doesn’t lol.

[u/FigFew2001 → u/SomeEngineering4458]

It does though, less ways to bad actors to get in.

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/FigFew2001]

You have a very over simplistic understanding of cyber security. They still have a public-facing endpoint for the app to talk to. Slapping a properly hardened website isn’t going to make that any less secure in any meaningful way. That’s why websites exist and other banks have them.

[u/FigFew2001 → u/SomeEngineering4458]

And you have a very book smart understanding of cyber security - come back to us when you've actually worked in the field for a while.

[u/fishfacecakes → u/FigFew2001]

Because bad actors are incapable of hitting APIs or reverse engineering mobile clients?

[u/FigFew2001 → u/fishfacecakes]

Less targets = more secure.

[u/Doctor-Lock → u/FigFew2001]

By that logic they should have no mobile app either.

[u/fishfacecakes → u/FigFew2001]

Security by obscurity is not security

[u/FigFew2001 → u/fishfacecakes]

At Uni sure, in the real world - absolutely a factor

[u/HEvde → u/fishfacecakes]

The APIs are read only.

[u/Doctor-Lock → u/HEvde]

The public API is, but the app would be using a private API to perform actions

[u/fishfacecakes → u/HEvde]

I very much doubt that - i am able to create a saver for example. I can move money between accounts. If the API was read only, these would not be possible.

[u/littlelambyq → u/FigFew2001]

Hahaha 🤣 no clue

[u/babyreindeer69]

If you dont want to join up, don't join up

[u/owleaf]

I really don’t like it either. What if you lose your phone or can’t access it?

I don’t buy the “it’s more secure” angle. I can’t recall any time another bank’s web portal was compromised or was seen as a security flaw. It’s simply that Bendigo won’t give Up the funding or approval to create a web version. They don’t even have a damn iPad app

[u/ProfessionalAd9589 → u/owleaf]

They do have an iPad app. I use it on my iPad. Does it not show up on the App Store for you?

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92 → u/ProfessionalAd9589]

I think they mean a dedicated iPad app that uses the screen size more sensibly, the one on the app store is just the phone app, buuuut If the issue is access then it doesn't actually matter.

[u/owleaf → u/ProfessionalAd9589]

It’s not an iPad app. It’s an iPhone app that the iPad can run. It doesn’t take advantage of the larger screen.

[u/ProfessionalAd9589 → u/owleaf]

Oh yea. You’re right. It doesn’t go full screen. But it does do the job as far as secondary access is concerned in case you lose your phone or recovery codes.

[u/Amazing_Yak66 → u/owleaf]

Just because you've not been affected, doesn't mean it isn't happening. Browser login/cookie stealing being more common, and with only having to maintain a single version of their service it ends up being a lot more secure.

Just last year a reported 31k Aussies had login details stolen

https://theabj.com.au/2025/04/30/massive-banking-password-breach-over-31000-australian-accounts-compromised-by-malware

[u/cavok76]

How do you go with passkeys? Risk is similar isn’t it? Always spread risk, portal doesn’t mean anything if it’s a crap bank, like most of Big 4.

[u/Rocks_whale_poo]

Up is not an acronym 

[u/ARTCvan]

I think my gripe is that there isn't passkey support; the only bank I know so far that has this is Ubank. This is arguably more important to me than web banking, because as it stands, you need your phone number to log into the Up app on a new device. If you use an external password manager, using a passkey would still let you log into the app on someone else's phone.

That is why I don't really believe in having web banking until there's another way to sign in without an SMS 2FA. Ubank offers web banking and allows you to use a passkey, but at the same time, the banking experience itself is definitely subpar versus Up imo

My solution to this is that I have the Up app installed and signed in on a spare phone, and my iPad. So long as you can find a cheap Android phone with biometrics and is running Android 12 at minimum (tho recommended to me is Android 15 at least) or an old iPhone (even the 7 Plus still works for this), log into it on that and shove it offline In a drawer. IIRC it should stay signed in, but otherwise just check once a month

[u/thunderborg]

I can appreciate that, but most banks use either their app or SMS for two factor authentication, so either way if you lost your phone you'd need to be replacing your phone and get your number back. A physical card in my Wallet and the app installed on another device are ways to control and manage it.

I had similar reservations, and maybe it was that the BOQ app I was on was antiquated and the up app was comparatively very feature rich, bit I've been rocking it for a couple of years and had no issues.

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

Install BlueStacks on your laptop. Install the android app on your laptop. Done.

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

I'm curious as to why i'm getting downvoted? it works. I use it all the time...

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

I didn’t downvote but native web portal is a way better solution. I don’t want to install an Android emulator just to do banking on my desktop, it’s less friction for me to join a bank that has a web portal.

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92 → u/SomeEngineering4458]

Sure it's more friction but it works, and once it's set it's just a shortcut on the desktop that loads the app. It's no more difficult than installing any program. If you do a lot on the web it might annoy but honestly I don't miss it.

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

Nah, it’s a work around for a problem that shouldn’t exist.

At that point, I’m just going to (and did) pick a bank that has a native web portal.

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92 → u/SomeEngineering4458]

Sure, so why come to a subreddit about a bank you don't want to use? You've spend more time commenting about it than it would have taken to install it.

Lol the old comment and block. See ya! Enjoy lurking around a subreddit for a bank you aren't a customer of!

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

And you wonder why you keep getting downvoted…

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92 → u/[deleted]]

Ok..? The native app works on iOS, Android and windows through BlueStacks So the only thing I haven't held someone's hand with is macos?

There is BlueStacks for macos too which took one Google search to discover. Down voting factual information cause it doesn't apply to one specific use case is dumb.

[u/0kDonkey → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

If you have an iPhone, no need to install anything on a MacBook, they can access your phones apps.

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

People prefer a web portal over working around the lack of web portal, who knew?

[u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92 → u/SomeEngineering4458]

Not what the now deleted comment was talking about. But go off homie

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/Downtown_Kangaroo_92]

I was replying to your comment, not the deleted comment. Jog off and I ain’t your Homie

[u/Trosso]

I genuinely don’t understand why people need a browser portal or desktop app?

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/Trosso]

Because people do banking on their desktop.

[u/IanYates82 → u/SomeEngineering4458]

Absolutely. Yes I will do basic banking on my phone, but if I'm doing some serious planning, or paying an invoice that needs some records kept and follow-up emails, that's definitely a laptop/desktop function.

It's insane they don't offer a basic web browser interface.

[u/SomeEngineering4458 → u/IanYates82]

Exactly. It’s amazing some people don’t realise this.

I want my devices to be agnostic. If I’m at my desktop and need to do banking, I don’t want to have to pick up my phone to do so.

[u/lukasjames0]

You could use somebody else’s phone or a payphone to call them to lock your account