Hi there,
there’s a topic that has attracted me a while – how to become less dependent on the companies, authorities, institutes and the government e.g. in the everyday life. As the world largely works on the financial basis, the first step would be to become less dependent on banks and financial institutes.
As a starting point to all of this I had an occasion I had about a week ago. I went to an ATM to get some money. The ATM decided without a warning to suck my card in. The message on the screen was not a very informative one – unfortunately I cannot recall it exactly any longer – but about something like “card defect, taken into the custody”. As customer one surely is worried and puzzled about what actually happened in the occasion. Anyway, as a precautionary measure I phoned my bank and let them freeze my card. They told to contact my own bank affiliate, so at that point I mainly was relieved that everything would be back to normal soon.
On the following day I received a letter from my bank that my card hard been frozen due to that it was suspected to had been skimmed, and a new card hard already been ordered and would be delivered within the next few days which also happened. I went to the ATM with the objective to get some money and hoped everything would work out alright. No, it turned out that I obviously had frozen the new card and it was now sucked to the inside of the machine again. Bollocks!
After having thought about the issue for a while I decided to go to the affiliate to clarify what actually had happened, why and how this could be fixed. I had very friendly service with the regrets that my card could not be regained due to security reasons. According to their statement a new card was ordered once again for me. So now I’m expecting it to arrive during the next few days and I’m a bit worried whether it will work this time either…
This whole occasion made me to think what a customer typically does wish most when he/she is confused, and that is information. At present I don’t regard it as adequate to receive a letter maybe days later after a card has been frozen. Also it is extremely strange that the system of the bank (or the customer service) does not tell which card(s) the customer has, which have been frozen and for which reason. It would not be too much to ask to receive an SMS etc., if something grave is happening to the customer. Moreover, as it seems the banks have way too much power over the customer nowadays. If the customer has money does not make any difference, if the bank does not provide access to it.
In the ideal future I see a development happening where individual banks lose part or most of their power, and the monetary transactions happen between the individuals without any need for middlemen. I know that I’m late, but I really believe in the cryptocurrencies at the moment. Obviously there is a lot of speculation in the prices of the new currencies, and for sure the banks, financial institutes and the governments attempt to do their best to slow down or prevent the tendency, but still I believe the benefits greatly outweigh the drawbacks. During the following weeks I plan to concentrate on the topic, find more information and also write about this, partly from the perspective of the technology, partly from the personal perspective.
There’s a war raging, and it won’t be a beautiful one… Until next time.