Stupid online-payment design

I recently got married and we converted my husband's existing checking
account to a joint account. He's long been doing online bill payment, I figure
it's best and easiest to continue that. But it would be nice if I could do it
sometimes also, like say if anything bad happened to him. I discovered that
I can... but only if I log on using his pin number.
You see, despite the fact that both holders of a joint account are
responsible for maintaining the account according to the terms of service, the
online system is designed around the single-user-debit-card model. I can log
on using my pin number and password and see the account status and
transactions. I can schedule and pay online bills. I can NOT see any online
bills he's got scheduled, nor can he see mine.
When I emailed the bank about this, they say basically that's the way
it works and if I want to see his scheduled payments, I should log on with his
password and pin number. In other words, "we're not going to change it so shut
up".
I think the password/pin combination should only be used to
authenticate me for access to the account. Why is it also used to block us
from seeing each other's activity? Hello, we're joint owners of the account!
I wonder what would happen if one of us overdrew the account because we
couldn't see scheduled payments of the other person. Nevermind, I know what
would happen - it would be entirely our fault!
Well, I don't expect answers from you guys here, just maybe
commisseration. I'm a software engineer so stuff like this drives me nuts.
:-)

- Sharon
"Gravity... is a harsh mistress!"
.

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