OPINION: They say internet banking is the future, which is now I suppose.
Life used to be simple - that's what boomers reckon anyway. But they also say that life was way harder for them growing up so I don't know what to believe. Technology has continued to evolve to make life even more straightforward, but in the process, it has made life more complicated too. I get anxious just thinking about it.
To type or not to type? I’m confused.
Older people tend to struggle with new-age technology. It's not hard to use, ask a young person. Internet banking is relatively simple. It's life-changing in that it is supposed to help with all your banking and money needs. It hasn't. I still have no money, but the best thing is I can see how little money I have at any time of the day when I check it on my mobile banking app. It's great.
Society is increasingly becoming cashless and moving towards digital banking. This has been accelerated by COVID, and a new survey by the Reserve Bank has found New Zealanders' use of cash has declined sharply in the pandemic.
Just 63 percent of Kiwis now use cash at all. That's a big decrease from 2019 when the survey found 96 percent still used cash. Of those who do use cash, 40 percent now do so less than twice a week. The latest Reserve Bank survey also found the main reason people said they still used cash was for shops and stalls that only used cash.
For banks, going digital is cheaper for them than handling cash. Everyone's doing their banking online, or at least being encouraged to, and so it probably makes sense or is easier for banks to justify cutting back on the number of staff and branches they have.
Digital banking is also mostly more secure and the majority of us are happy with the convenience of cards, phones and computers, but some people are not - and community groups often suggest it's more vulnerable customers using cash.
What's worse than trying to deal with your bank online? Trying to deal with them over the phone. It's a nightmare. You go to call and an automated voice greets you. "Please say your first name," "Brin," "sorry, we didn't quite catch that. Can you please spell it out for us," "so it's B for Brin"... and so on. Painful.
Wealthy people embrace cards, especially credit cards with points because they know they can pay it off month to month and reap the rewards. But credit cards and online banking is not the answer to everything for everyone.
The largest four commercial banks; ANZ, BNZ, ASB and Westpac, have collectively reduced their number of bank branches and the operating days or hours of their remaining branches. Branch closures are important to the banks as they want to reduce the number of people they employ. It's called cost-cutting, but they will disguise it as "investing in the future". But the reality is that they are letting down vulnerable customer groups who often rely on their local branch staff to help them manage their finances.
However, I think the most annoying thing for me about banking in general is automatic direct debits. I loathe them. Like, why are direct debits taking money out of your account in the middle of the night when you're sleeping and dreaming and not thinking about them? If you're going to take my money, at least do it when I'm awake. It's as if these companies, who bleed me dry, take pleasure in doing it at night.
The other thing that annoys me is those stupid verification things you have to do before you're allowed to access your account. You know the ones where you have to click on the squares and select which ones have a particular object in them? I once had one that said, "select all the squares with bridges," and none of the squares had bridges in them. I sat there for hours, zooming in to each one just in case there was a bridge hiding somewhere. There wasn't, and I was thoroughly annoyed.
Or the one where you have to spell out words hidden in a WordArt-type font? They annoy me too because sometimes, despite spelling out every word correctly, it would say "no, try again." It might as well have said, "you're an idiot, go cry yourself to sleep, then I might let you into YOUR account."
How long do you spend trying to come up with a new password? In today's world, passwords must have hashtags, emojis, thousands of numbers, and CAPITAL letters before it just says, "this password isn't strong enough and can easily be hacked. Try again."
The worst part is when you forget your password. I spend days on end trying to remember mine. Everything has a password so hackers can't hack into your bank account. Well, neither can I half of the time. Every second day it feels like they want you to change your passwords to keep the scammers guessing. The only one who is guessing is me. Just let me into my account!
