A Cautionary Tale
I don’t mess about with hardware and although, I could probably do quite complicated work on PCs at one time, I couldn’t now, as my knowledge is way out of date.
But this tale from the BBCs web site, shows how you might fall into all sorts of security holes if you do.
Their technology correspondent changed the motherboard on his home PC and consequently, the various security systems thought he was committing credit card fraud, as the computer address had changed.
Now he, thought he knew what he was doing. He did hardware-wise, but he got caught out, by intelligent checking software on the Internet.
when I feel, one of machines is getting to the end of it’s life, I buy another machine and gradually swap everything over, still doing most of the work on the old machine.
So whhen it dies, I just move the last update over and put the old machine in the bin.
Looking For A Double-Sided Card Holder
I spent some time yesterday, looking for a new credit card holder, that meets the specification I laid down in this post.
I was unsuccessful, although an assistant in Selfridges said, he’d got a leather one and used a safety pin clipped in it, to identify the side to use.
Credit Card Transactions
Yesterday, I used my credit cards, twice. I used my Visa card to buy a present in Selfridges and also bought my supper in Marks and Spencer using my John Lewis Partnership card.
Checking my on-line accounts this morning, neither of the transactions have been added. Why not?
In these days of instance pin checking and information, surely the information, should be in my statement, immediately I’ve used the card!
After all, it would be a big security check, for users.
On the other hand, where your partner has a card on your account, it could be major source of friction in a relationship.
Booking A Train Ticket To The Hague From London
The last time, I went to The Hague, I just went to the Eurostar site and booked one ticket to Any Dutch Station.
But now, this simple system has been discontinued at the behest of the Dutch government. For what reason, I will not speculate although, I have had various opinions given to me by my Dutch friends. I’ll give my view after I return from The Netherlands.
So this time, I’ve booked a single ticket to Brussels on Eurostar.
The train I shall be riding on Tuesday, will get me to Brussels just after mid-day. I shall be trying to buy a ticket to The Hague on the convenient 13:18 departure between the two capitals, when I arrive in Brussels.
It’s a real downgrade from the previous service, in that I shall have to change trains at Rotterdam as well. The direct train has been discontinued. I’ve taken that train several times and the standard is similar to what I you get on the fast London to Ipswich and Norwich trains.
So I’ll be getting a quicker high-speed train, but I’d prefer a direct train. In the UK, when I go say from London to Liverpool, I always book direct trains for convenience. I also don’t want to have to wait on a cold platform for a train to arrive. The connection in Rotterdam might be easy, but I’ve only been to the station there, some years ago and can’t remember it.
I thought for safety, I would book a later train in case, I couldn’t fathom out how to buy the ticket in Brussels.
So I went to the SNCB web site to book one. Incidentally, Eurostar allows you to enter Rotterdam into their site, but doesn’t allow you to book tickets, just telling you that there are no tickets available. To find where to book, I looked up how on Seat 61, which gave me the address of the SNCB web site to book the ticket from Brussels to The Hague.
Just imagine someone having to book a ticket urgently, for either business or family reasons and wanting to get to say Utrecht. They would give up or just book to Brussels knowing or even just thinking that they could get a train from there.
So I looked up the SNCB web site and found these trains from Brussels to Den Haag.
13:18 – Dutch high speed train – 15:02 – £21.42
13:52 – Thalys – 15:26 – £38.47
13:56 – Local Train – 2 changes – 16:41 – £24.35
15:18 – Dutch high speed train – 17:02 – £21.42
So by travelling on the slow Dutch train, you have two changes and pay more.
In the end I bought a ticket on the 13:56.
But I had to pay an extra booking fee, just like you don’t do on any British train booked on the train company’s web site. Although I had to pay a similar amount on Eurostar.
The ticket is two sheets of A4 paper, one for each leg of the journey. We may go on about the old British Rail-era orange tickets, but they fit nicely in a wallet.
What do you do incidentally, if you’re booking these tickets on a laptop on a train coming to London to get the Eurostar? Or you’re doing it late at night, and the printer runs out of paper?
I don’t think the SNCB web site gave you an alternative.
Verified By Visa Just Lost Nationwide A Customer
I shall be changing my bank from Nationwide, as I just tried to book a ticket using my debit card and the dreaded Verified by Visa screen came up.
I don’t use any card on-line with this facility, so I phoned them to ask them to remove it.
They wouldn’t, so I’ll remove myself from the bank and find one that doesn’t use such an annoying system.
In the end I paid £4 to use my American Express card.
A Double-Sided Card Holder
Like many in London, I have my Freedom Pass or Oyster Card in a small plastic folder.
My Freedom Pass Folder
I used to keep one of my credit cards in the same folder, so I didn’t have to carry a full wallet. But now that the Oyster system can read credit cards, I don’t want to confuse the system and get charged as well. So now, I just have the Freedom Pass in the folder. But it is inconvenient, as I often have to get out my wallet to say pay in Waitrose.
What is needed is a folder which is say blue on one side and red on the other. With one colour face up you get the Freedom Pass or Oyster Card on the reader and the other way up, the credit card can be used on a swipe terminal.
It could even be embossed on both sides, so that the blind would get the right card on the reader.
Of course it would be in something better than cheap plastic, like leather.
I think, judging by the gossip I’ve heard, that Transport for London, are getting a bit of a problem, with the system charging an inadvertently swiped card, instead of the Oyster or Freedom Pass.
Wonga Move Into Credit Card Territory
According to this article from the BBC, Wonga are moving into credit card and web fulfilment territory with their latest service called PayLater.
Although, I’m not a fan of Wonga, it could be a good idea, provided they moderate their interest rates.
Would I like to see someone like Zopa or Ratesetter doing the same? Only of course, if they didn’t relax their credit checks.
After all, for years, with many products and some big purchases like cars, finance has been an integral part of the process.
The trouble with something like Zopa doing this, could be, that if the loan is turned down, then the sale could be lost.
But Wonga’s thinking does show how the banks and credit card companies are getting it in the neck from the new financial innovators.
An Acceptable Face Of Credit?
I was ion a Northern line train a few days ago, when I saw an American Express advert for their new credit card. I haven’t got a picture, but the APR for the card was prominently displayed.
Surely all adverts for credit cards and loans must state the APR prominently.
De-Cluttering My Cards
I have three credit or charge cards at present, Visa, Mastercard and AMEX.
But do I need all three?
1. My VISA card is unusable on the Internet because of Verified By Visa, where I always forget the password and have doubts about its security.
2. My AMEX card is generally used for travel, as that gives me insurance which works.
3. The Mastercard does give me rewards, when I use it in John Lewis.
So the VISA card will go. After all, if it hadn’t been for Olympic tickets, it would have gone a long time ago.
I don’t carry Nectar or any of those wallet fillers, but I carry my EH 111.
A Better Way To Pay By Credit Card?
There are certain things, I don’t like where money is concerned.
The first is smart-phones, as they are just status symbols, beloved of the light-fingered. So if anybody suggests that I need those to do things like buy a train ticket, a coffee or a pair of knickers, or even replace my rail ticket then I say a big no!
I don’t like too to always have to carry more than one payment card. At present, I usually carry two; my Freedom Pass for transport in London and usually my John Lewis/Waitrose credit card for purchases. I would like to be like the Queen and not carry any cash, but as I do like coffee, which is almost as good as milk for my throat, I’ve always got a few coins in my pocket. So I have a small folder with these cards, my Senior Railcard and a few of my business cards in my pocket. My wallet stays at home most of the time, when I’m in London. I did lose the folder once and within a few hours, the bus driver had phoned me saying he’d got it and I could get it from the garage.
So I was rather intrigued, when I saw in the Sunday Times, an article about Square, a payment company started by one of people who brought us Twitter. You upload your picture, a recording of your name and credit card details to a web site and then when you go into say Starbucks, their iPad app recognises you and your name recording is the password. You can get your receipt as a text message to any phone as new as a Nokia 6310i. I knew I was right about smart phones being dead end technology. Nothing will persuade me to get one. If for instance, a shop, a theatre or a train company said I must have a smart phone to purchase their product, then I will make sure that I take my business elsewhere and give them all the bad publicity they deserve.
I can’t wait to walk into Starbucks on Upper Street, say “Anonymous Widower” and get my cappuccino.
The Anonymous Widower 