21st century stuff

[deird1]

I have succumbed to the inevitable, and set up internet banking.


I have spent many years dutifully trudging into the bank every month to get a bank cheque for rent-payment, and standing in queues at the post office to pay all my bills. (Truth be told, I'd be perfectly happy with a world where we all lugged around suitcases full of cash and doled it out as needed.) But no more! I now have a fancy-schmancy internet thing whereby my money only ever exists in the ether.

It's frustrating how, in the last few years, companies have started switching purely to B-Pay "for your convenience!", without ever pausing to think that it might be rather inconvenient for those of us still stuck in the dark ages. But I was dealing with that. The thing that started spurring me into action was that, now, if I am sent an email* saying "This cause rocks! You should totally donate to us!" and I think "Hmm. Excellent cause. I do want to donate to them." and reply to their email asking how I can, I'm going to get back an account number and almost nothing else - because everyone knows how to use those, right?

* Legitimately. I'm not talking about emails from Nigerian royalty desperate to give me their untold wealth.

It's hard to be technologically Amish when the world won't let you.


At least these days I know that walking into a bank and saying "Hi! I'm helpless and ignorant! Please let me waste your time with stupid questions!"** is not at all embarrassing, and will tend to result in excellent service.

** My exact words.

Comments

[velvetwhip]

I am possibly more backward than you.


Gabrielle

[goldenusagi]

I have spent many years dutifully trudging into the bank every month to get a bank cheque for rent-payment, and standing in queues at the post office to pay all my bills.

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but what about personal checks?

That said, I hate auto pay on things. I just don't have enough money in my account to let things always come out on the 15th, for example. Sometimes, I'd prefer to send a check on the 17th. Though I've had online banking for a while. I only use it to pay for things where I can go to the site and make the payment, not for bills where they want to schedule a monthly payment.

[deird1]

Australia doesn't really use personal cheques anymore... I'd feel kinda weird having a chequebook purely for paying my rent.

[nimthiriel]

BPay is the sort of thing that you do when you can, rather than having it come out automatically. So we have both options, thank goodness :-)

[vass]

Welcome to the 21st century. I am biased: I love net banking. My sleep cycle and bank hours do not mix.

[zeborah]

I haven't been to a bank in quite possibly five years. In fact, 'my' branch has been inaccessible and possibly demolished for the last year or so and I never even thought about it until recently.

I'm lucky enough to have sufficient savings in my account that I can just have all my bills paid by automatic debit from my account and never have to waste time on any of them or ever worry about forgetting. And I'm even more stingy with my time than with my money, so this is important to me.

[immer_am_lesen]

That's so strange, coming from someone so internet-savvy!
BPay is instant and free, and you don't need to go to a bank and queue and waste your time...and pay fees for using a human being at the teller.

Welcome to the late 20th century, glad you finally arrived.... ;-)

[klme.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased/ about time/ I told you so/ good stuff/ etc etc.
Also I have, and still use a cheque book. And we had one just for the purposes of paying the rent when we rented. But hey.
Enjoy internetting it up!

[nimthiriel]

Yay for entering the future!