The online world can be a dangerous
place. This is particularly true when it
comes to the threat of identity theft or controlling online access to bank or
investment accounts. I wonder, though,
if we are putting up too many walls.
I routinely visit nearly two dozen password
protected websites, some containing sensitive information, others not. Each has its own password rules; when
auto-fill doesn’t do the trick I sometimes have to resort to my not so reliable
memory to get access.
I recently refinanced my house. The amount of my monthly loan payment, made
by electronic funds transfer, is scheduled to change. I duly logged on to my bank’s website. A process I thought would take less than a
minute and a few keystrokes has stretched into a month-long headache.
Turns out that my bank, which shall remain
nameless, now requires an extra layer of security to make changes to EFTs. I was obliged to enroll, for the low, low
price of $19.99, in the bank’s security program.
Two long weeks later, a card arrives in the
mail. It’s a neat little gizmo that
generates random numbers via an embedded chip.
Two of these randomly generated numbers must be entered correctly into
the website before any changes can be made.
Unfortunately, the card I received has a bubble in its LCD display
obscuring part of the number.
Undaunted, I called the bank’s toll-free
number. The customer service guy I spoke
with said he’d text me two access numbers right away.
Here is where I must digress. I am one of the last individuals over the age
of, I don’t know, five who doesn’t carry a mobile. And I won’t.
There is no one—no one—on the
face of this earth I need or want to be immediately in touch with 24/7. The displays on most smart phones are hard
for me to read, and lacking the use of one of my hands it’s difficult for me to
enter text on touchscreens.
It is not much of a stretch to say that I
detest the telephone. It’s a holdover
from my first career, when I did have to be available 24/7. As much as I gripe about it, I like having a
job where I’m not on an electronic leash.
The only reason I have a landline is so I can call 911 in case of
emergency. Call me, and you’ll be told
to leave a message. You will get a call
back at my leisure.
The customer service rep was surprised, as
everyone who asks for my mobile number or asks me to add theirs to mine
is. The title of this piece
notwithstanding, I’m not really a Luddite.
I like technology when it works for me and doesn’t make me a slave to
it. Computers and the internet are great
and have helped me enormously in my work.
I believe email is one of the greatest inventions of the late 20th
century. I wouldn’t know how to spend my
weekends if I couldn’t binge watch TV shows on Netflix. But I draw the line at carrying a mobile.
Back to the contretemps with the bank. The guy I spoke with said he’d send a new
card. Arrival window: 7-10 working
days. And, no, they could not offer
expedited shipping.
Cut off from the digital frontier of my own
accord, I went to my local branch. The
nice young man I sat down with said he was unable to manually make changes to
my account. He offered to send numbers I
could use to my mobile. It was on the
tip of my tongue to ask why they even have branch banking if they can’t fix
problems like mine in person, but I simply nodded and said I understood now
that EFT changes could only be made through online banking.
I contacted my lender. They assured me that I could make my first
payment by check. An old fashioned,
paper check. The inconvenience
notwithstanding, the Luddite in me is smiling.
©
2015 The Unassuming Scholar
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