Minor Annoyances (Vol 2)

[air_raid]

Sorry for the double post but...

15 hours ago, garynysmon said:

Cashless society? Bring it on, cash is a total pain in the arse.

 

12 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Sorry, but I hope we keep cash for two reasons:

1. It's better for homeless people.

2. It's crucial for people trapped in domestic abuse situations, where financial control by the abuser is almost always a factor.

 

12 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

3. For those that live in a rural-ish area and can't get 4G easily so the bus ticket app doesn't work, the contactless card reader on the bus never works, and they spend the entire time waiting for the bus in anxiety and stress smoking because of this so always have an emergency £3 in coins for this. They spend the time waiting checking that the pound coins are still in their pocket roughly 46 times.

 

1 hour ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Yeah, can't say I would like a cashless society at all.

 

1 hour ago, Rossman said:

Just spent 10 minutes and 3 attempts trying to get the parking ticket machine at the hospital to accept my card. They never work properly. 

 

56 minutes ago, Jazzy G said:

I wouldn't want to go fully cashless either as it'd potentially mean organisations being able to keep closer tabs on people's spending. 

 

24 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

And it’s definitely not so that businesses can fiddle the books.

 

2 minutes ago, Chili said:

Yeah a cashless society feels like anyone with the power could squeeze you more and feel they have a divine right to abuse that power too.

I still don't see cashless happening in our lifetime as there will always be those that either can't register for accounts with chip and pin facilities or are ineligible for them - not just the homeless but previously bankrupt, ex-cons etc. Even when the tech allows for chip and pin to restrict the spend to only the actual balance (rather than the invisible "available" balance), ex prisoners where substances are a problem or those in recovery have their ability to access funds restricted to when a cash/counter service is available so they can't fall off the wagon and withdraw cash from an ATM at 3AM for a fix. Or at least, that's the theory.

[wordsfromlee]

Thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve touched any physical cash in about two years now. I haven’t had the need to carry a wallet in a long time. 

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, WyattSheepMask said:

And it’s definitely not so that businesses can fiddle the books.

 

Considering the average lifespan of takeaways these days, can you blame them?

[air_raid]

Or launder money. I'd love a time-and-motion study on our local cash-in-hand car wash. Probably find out they'd have to wash 427 cars an hour to earn their cash takings.

[DavidB6937]

I'd love to know what all the American sweet shops / vape shops / mobile phone repair shops in town are up to.

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

I'd love to know what all the American sweet shops / vape shops / mobile phone repair shops in town are up to.

Selling me American sodas and crisps. Launder away my friends! Launder away!

[air_raid]

Another from the “people all using the same voice” pile… IRC nitwits keep using “clears” to mean “is significantly better than”/beats/outperforms/outranks and so on, and I think it sounds awfully clunky. As in “Jeff Hardy clears Hulk Hogan in every way.” Ugh.

[BomberPat]

potentially slightly more than a minor annoyance...

My card was just stopped for fraudulent transactions - a dodgy one for 0.00 at what sounds like an American diner, and something in Jordanian Dinar. Both made while I was at work and very much not splashing out the Dinar. Luckily, both caught early, neither went through, fraud department did their job. I confirmed neither transaction was me, and that previous transactions were, and that they cancelled my card. Usual deal, I now have to wait 3 or 4 days for a new one to arrive.

Except therein lies the problem. I'm at work. And I no longer have a functioning card. I asked if it would still work on Google Wallet, and it won't. Which means I now can't get the bus or the train home from work, because I have no way of paying for it. "Don't worry," customer service tell me, "if you need cash, you can withdraw some with photo ID from any branch". Except that isn't helpful at all, because the things I need to pay for don't take cash. And even if they did, you've closed half your branches, and the nearest one is actually slightly further away than my flat anyway.

Thankfully, I don't live a million miles away from work. On a nice day, I can walk it. Today is definitely not a nice day, and chances are it'll be pissing it down come home time. If I could be bothered, I'd be booking a taxi and insisting on billing it to them.

[Carbomb]

2 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

potentially slightly more than a minor annoyance...

My card was just stopped for fraudulent transactions - a dodgy one for 0.00 at what sounds like an American diner, and something in Jordanian Dinar. Both made while I was at work and very much not splashing out the Dinar. Luckily, both caught early, neither went through, fraud department did their job. I confirmed neither transaction was me, and that previous transactions were, and that they cancelled my card. Usual deal, I now have to wait 3 or 4 days for a new one to arrive.

Except therein lies the problem. I'm at work. And I no longer have a functioning card. I asked if it would still work on Google Wallet, and it won't. Which means I now can't get the bus or the train home from work, because I have no way of paying for it. "Don't worry," customer service tell me, "if you need cash, you can withdraw some with photo ID from any branch". Except that isn't helpful at all, because the things I need to pay for don't take cash. And even if they did, you've closed half your branches, and the nearest one is actually slightly further away than my flat anyway.

Thankfully, I don't live a million miles away from work. On a nice day, I can walk it. Today is definitely not a nice day, and chances are it'll be pissing it down come home time. If I could be bothered, I'd be booking a taxi and insisting on billing it to them.

Could get an Oyster card as a backup? I know people don't tend to use them these days (I don't), but you'd be able to put cash on it at a newsagent.

[hallicks]

 

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

potentially slightly more than a minor annoyance...

My card was just stopped for fraudulent transactions - a dodgy one for 0.00 at what sounds like an American diner, and something in Jordanian Dinar. Both made while I was at work and very much not splashing out the Dinar. Luckily, both caught early, neither went through, fraud department did their job. I confirmed neither transaction was me, and that previous transactions were, and that they cancelled my card. Usual deal, I now have to wait 3 or 4 days for a new one to arrive.

Except therein lies the problem. I'm at work. And I no longer have a functioning card. I asked if it would still work on Google Wallet, and it won't. Which means I now can't get the bus or the train home from work, because I have no way of paying for it. "Don't worry," customer service tell me, "if you need cash, you can withdraw some with photo ID from any branch". Except that isn't helpful at all, because the things I need to pay for don't take cash. And even if they did, you've closed half your branches, and the nearest one is actually slightly further away than my flat anyway.

Thankfully, I don't live a million miles away from work. On a nice day, I can walk it. Today is definitely not a nice day, and chances are it'll be pissing it down come home time. If I could be bothered, I'd be booking a taxi and insisting on billing it to them.

Can you sign up for a Starling account? I think you get a virtual debit card you could add to phone wallet and transfer money to, but it might take 12-24 hours to verify. 

[BomberPat]

I found a temporary fix.

After faffing about with Paypal, Curve, Revolut, and Google Pay, I set up a Monzo account, as they let you set up a virtual card before your physical card arrives Problem, though, Monzo and Revolut both require that you take a photograph of your passport or driving license. I don't have a driving license, and my passport is at home, so once again the problem arises that I'm at work with no way of paying for public transport. Even to take @Carbomb's suggestion of getting an Oyster Card, I'd have had to borrow money from someone else to pay for it in the first place, as I had no cash on me, and the only way I could get cash would be to get to a branch of my bank that's even further away from work than my flat, and which would require me to be carrying my ID which, again, is at home. So it's all a circular mess.

Monzo won't let you upload an existing photo from your gallery, you have to take a photo of your passport there and then. I tried to be clever, and printed out a photo of my passport at work and photographed that, but it was immediately recognised as a scan and rejected. So I had no choice but to walk home - thankfully avoiding the worst of the rain, but it was still pretty miserable. Once there, only took me a couple of minutes to find my passport, take the photo, get it approved, and then transfer some cash on to my Monzo card to get me through until my new debit card arrived.

 

But what a ballache, honestly. I'm fortunate that I do live less than an hour's walk from work, and that I'm healthy enough to do that walk. Otherwise, I'd have just been stuck with no idea how to fix things. Not that long ago, when Long Covid was kicking my arse, that walk would have completely wiped me out if I managed it at all. And it's just bloody typical that I didn't even need to be in the office today anyway, so just wasted two hours or more on what could have been a five minute job at home.



But that brings it back round to the cashless society stuff. If I hadn't lived so close to work, if I'd been on the other side of the city, what was I meant to do? I had no card, so couldn't get the bus or the train or the tube anywhere. I had no cash, so couldn't get an Oyster Card, and also no way of getting any cash anyway. As far as I can tell, my only options were to try and borrow some money from someone at work - and I didn't actually see anyone I knew the entire time I was there today - but that's dependent on them carrying cash, or at least a card to withdraw some with, to convince someone to give me a lift home, or to walk the entire way no matter how far it was. And that's all the stress that's created when whoever was using my details hadn't managed to take any money!

Edited January 28, 2025 by BomberPat

[gmoney]

I know it's not helpful advice now, but I would recommend having multiple bank accounts and, if you trust yourself, a credit card back up. I have an account I get paid into and then automate the money going into an account for bills, another for short term savings etc. It sounds like a ballache, but really I find it a lot easier these days. You can have your virtual cards on your phone so you're not carrying a pocket full of plastic.

None of that helps if you lose your wallet/phone though. You would then be fucked. 

[SuperBacon]

All anyone ever says at work these days is "Get CoPilot to do it" 

Finally relented and gave it a go with the simplest task. Absolute bollocks.

"Actually Bacon if you use it correctly its quite useful"

Save it, I'm not listening.

[BomberPat]

I absolutely don't trust myself with a credit card. Though now that I have Monzo, it'll be good to have a backup 

[SuperBacon]

No use now @BomberPat and obviously cash wasn't any use but isn't there a way people can get cash out of an ATM with a code in an emergency, so you don't have to visit an actual branch?