Hic Sunt Dracones

Here is exactly what you have been waiting for. In all honesty, that is probably not true. But, nonetheless, it is what ye be getting!

So on! To the things:

Westpac no trust: Ah, WP(-T) how I love to scorn you. In recent years I have moved all of my banking away from your cruel claws, except my credit card (recently snapped in half till I buy me a camera) Also, I love the fact my credit card shows my office at school – that was neat when I got my card. Ah yes, and also WP(-T) employs my sister in some role in Wellington, and so, can’t be all bad.

What is your point Vanessa? Well logged on the other day to check out how much money I didn’t have – interrupted now to bring you Nic live blogging Saturday night, just like I am. Him at home, me at work. Truely, the greatest Saturday ever – And I saw that I can now cash in my Hotpoints(tm etc etc) online. Which is nice. Not particularly world shattering, but better than having to fill in little forms or spend time on hold waiting for them. And thus, book vouchers are in my destiny.

WOW this is poor.

Shut it. So, on to the National Bank. Home to the worlds.. etc. National bank have recently decided that really and truly, them sending me bank statements, for me to not open, then eventually months later open en mass and then store in a big folder for seven years before I throw them out, is really a waste of everyones time. So if I want I can stop them from sending them to me. Huzzah. Which is good, because if you’re like me, no Dave, not like that, but in a “bah bank statements” kind of way, and I put it to you, that you are. Getting bank statements is a waste of time. Want to know how much money you have? Look online. Want to look at transactions? Look online. Want to hire an assasin to kill the Arch Duke? Leave some coppers in the temple of Lims-Kragma in Rillanon, and they will contact you. After mentioning this (the bank statements, not the killing) to my sister, she informs me that Westpac has been doing this for months – but not with credit cards. I’m willing to believe her.
On to the main event!

Back in days of lore, when men were men, and girls were first years (or there abouts) and Xanadu flourished, Dan heard tell of some outfit in Dunedin that could read your eftpos card’s magnetic strip and copy the information onto one of their own cards, which you could customise! This was most exciting, and worth a trip to Dunedin for. (It didn’t take much – still doesn’t) Unfortunately, we never got any decent specifics about the scheme, and like many things the knowledge was lost.

But not forgotten, for many years later, we finally get them! Presenting: My Photo Card (oh yeah, great name guys. Dumb it down anymore could you?) Woot. Now I can finally put that picture of a 1989 Mazda with tinted windows on my eftpos card for all to see.

Props to the national bank for 1) finally getting this sorted. Westpac flirted with the idea a few years back when they started letting people select a couple of different images (I’m sure their advertising promised more, but anyway) So, yeah, that is I reckon pretty cool. I think the pricing was $19.95, or if you send no money now, $9.95 till the end of the month.

I’m very tempted to get one – I deemed 19.95 too much, but 9.95 was far more acceptable. But I don’t know what to put on it. Obviously such things as “National Bank sucks” or “I’m with stupid” are interesting, but expensive amusements. So anyway, Ben I’m sure would have an X-wing up on that bad boy before you could say [insert some snide comment about Star Wars from Nic].

The functionality they’ve built into the system is pretty cool (go have a play) they’ve provided a collection of some decent ideas, and you can upload your own, and position it at your leisure. Nothing has really jumped out as a good one for me, although a photoshopped proto of an eftpos card (of an eftpos card (of an eftpos card (etc))) would be cool to see. (Not really probably) I also wondered about how much readable text you could put on it. Genesis 1? The American Bill of Rights? The lyrics to something, or a map to somewhere.

ASB: Ah ASB, of all them money I don’t have, they have erm, the least of it? The most of it? I’m confused by the doubtful internal logic of this sentence. they have an account deemed “savings” which primarily had bar monies funnelled to it. Keeping it safe from the likes of me. Their entry into this weeks “My review of banking” comes courtesy of the fact that unlike every other bank’s online system, I got to choose my username. So I’m not random bank number 123123123 I’m secret super banking name that I can remember more easily. So that is A Good Thing.

However, they bollox it up by forcing you to have an eight digit password. That is lame. If I want to have a 9,10,11 up to I dunno 16 or something character password you should just let me. Limiting me to eight is sucky, because it means I can’t use [whatever cunning system I might have worked out to make a cool solid rememberable (is so a word) password] and have to reduce it to your eight char limit. So I look down my nose at you.

PS: In unrelated to banking news: Happy birthday to Si. We had a party, J&T are in town, there was some stuff, and it was good. J carried with him the weighty tome – THE CAPTAIN’S LOG. I’m going to finish transcription and throw it up on these Internets like nobodies business.

PPS: I note there was no 2) for National bank. Ah well.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 16th, 2006 at 12:32 am and is filed under Oversized Weapons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.