Accessing an online banking app

Help Fairphone 1
1

I just opened a new bank account in Germany and the bank needs me to install their app for getting TAN codes on my smartphone. I installed the app, but every time I try to access it, I am told that my android system is not allowing access because the system is not secure. How can I change the settings to allow access, please?

2

Maybe your bank app checks if your mobile is rooted. If you have really FP1, then maybe @Stefan knows a good root hiding app (I don’t know if Magisk runs on FP1), but in regards of unmaintained OS I would actually suggest not to use FP1 for banking purpose.

2 Likes
3

Thanks for the tip, Amber. My smartphone is a FP1, but I have no intention of getting a new one. I did read something about “rooting”. What does that mean and why does the Android system block this? I have no trouble with my other German bank account.

4

As far as I remember, the FP1 comes rooted by default. There are several banking apps which don’t work on rooted devices for some security implications. So only hope is to find an app, which hides the phone being rooted to your banking app. Magisk is one, but I don’t know if it runs on FP1.

5

I assume you are using Fairphone OS 1.8.7 Kola Nut, which was released in mid 2015. This means that it hasn’t received any security updates for over 3 years. I don’t recommend installing a banking app on your FP1.

As for rooting: FP1 is rooted, which means that you have administration rights on your phone and can modify everything. It also means that potentially malware can gain root privileges and steal data from other apps (in this case your banking app). This is why banking apps usually don’t run on a rooted phone.

I myself don’t use any banking app on my FP1 and thus never have had the need for another app that hides root from a banking app. I think that there is a Xposed module called Root Cloak. However, as said before, I wouldn’t recommend it as there are security concerns.

2 Likes
6

Any normal bank wouldn’t force you to install an App for this (even if they like to advertise that you can), but offer different methods of receiving TANs.

Or is this about N26? If so, tough luck :slight_smile: .
If not, ask your bank for a different method … chipTAN is a pretty common and secure one …

1 Like
7

I regularly use SMSTan.

8

Thank you all for your comments. I appreciate the feedback. I was sceptical from the start about a banking app on my phone – what if my FP1 is stolen? I will stick to a more conventional approach to banking. Have a nice weekend!
Janet

4 Likes