Have cards, will use!
Apr. 21st, 2010 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonWoohoo! I should now have working debit and credit cards again, after activating them.
I am a tad embarrassed to admit that I have gone without cards for several months, until the scheduled replacements showed up (they were set to expire at the end of April). How did this happen? I must have dropped my wallet on the bus, and some honest soul found it and got in touch with the PT/rehab people whose appointment card was in there. Unfortunately, we could never get them on the phone number they gave, and they didn't call back. It may well have been a wrong number. I kept watching the transactions, and apparently they stayed honest.
Lost cards which don't get fraudulently used are not a huge problem for most people, but between my auditory processing weirdness, and my general phone aversion, I just couldn't make myself call HSBC. (I've had about the annoying dealings you'd expect with their call centre, not helped by the "glarble, blah, glarble" + ESL over a lousy connection factors.) I kept "forgetting", and having anxiety attacks when I thought about trying, so finally just decided to wait until the new cards arrived instead of keeping beating myself up about it. I wish they would let you report cards lost through their online banking.
I don't even know where in the house my checkbooks are, and basically nowhere accepts them anymore in the UK anyway. You need to show your debit card as a check guarantee card, anyway. So that hasn't been an option, either. Guess I'll have to get used to carrying a checkbook again once we move!
vatine should get fewer urges to strangle (or just snark at) me now. Without direct access to the accounts, we've had months of a combination of getting him to hit an ATM so I'll have cash, and waiting until he can go along shopping. Yeah, I'm the one who does most of the household shopping. On the brighter side, we've saved a decent bit of money--and further developed my talent for cheapness and meal improvisation--since I haven't been so good at remembering to ask for cash. :-| Especially since some embarrassed kept popping up every time.
It's been irritating for me, and I'd be amazed if he hadn't repeatedly gotten aggravated at the inconvenience. But he's been remarkably patient with my "weirdness" (a.k.a. disability)--and hasn't once suggested that it's my own damned fault, so I can make myself call the bank or not have any money. I still don't really expect that level of understanding/respect.
In a while, I'm planning to head off to break in the new card at Sainsbury's. Beforehand, though, I'm sorely tempted to make sure it's really activated at an ATM, to avoid potential embarrassment and phone calls to the bank at the checkout!
I also lost my Virginia driver's license in the wallet, so will have to apply from scratch once we hit California, which is really inconvenient in itself. (And expensive, since I'll have to get a driving school vehicle for the road test, with the DMV's weird insurance documentation requirements.) Virginia won't let you request a replacement online without the customer number on the license (helpful!), and I am so not going to fly back home just to go to the DMV. Next time I get my paws on a license, I'm keeping a photocopy in a safe place, with the passport one.
That should be fun for a while, especially sincevatine has never really needed to get a license. Getting a British one requires a lot more hassle than just walking into a DMV branch (especially if you're a foreigner with chronic health problems!). Neither one of us wanted to mail our passports off to Swansea, and they require a remarkable amount of hoop-jumping if you have just about any kind of health problem (which includes "any mental ill-health condition (including depression)"#).* So we've both made do without.
At least his future workplace runs employee shuttles, so he should be able to get to work without too much trouble until I get things sorted out.
_____________
* Unfortunately, the weird phrasing seems to reflect some attitudes.
I am a tad embarrassed to admit that I have gone without cards for several months, until the scheduled replacements showed up (they were set to expire at the end of April). How did this happen? I must have dropped my wallet on the bus, and some honest soul found it and got in touch with the PT/rehab people whose appointment card was in there. Unfortunately, we could never get them on the phone number they gave, and they didn't call back. It may well have been a wrong number. I kept watching the transactions, and apparently they stayed honest.
Lost cards which don't get fraudulently used are not a huge problem for most people, but between my auditory processing weirdness, and my general phone aversion, I just couldn't make myself call HSBC. (I've had about the annoying dealings you'd expect with their call centre, not helped by the "glarble, blah, glarble" + ESL over a lousy connection factors.) I kept "forgetting", and having anxiety attacks when I thought about trying, so finally just decided to wait until the new cards arrived instead of keeping beating myself up about it. I wish they would let you report cards lost through their online banking.
I don't even know where in the house my checkbooks are, and basically nowhere accepts them anymore in the UK anyway. You need to show your debit card as a check guarantee card, anyway. So that hasn't been an option, either. Guess I'll have to get used to carrying a checkbook again once we move!
vatine should get fewer urges to strangle (or just snark at) me now. Without direct access to the accounts, we've had months of a combination of getting him to hit an ATM so I'll have cash, and waiting until he can go along shopping. Yeah, I'm the one who does most of the household shopping. On the brighter side, we've saved a decent bit of money--and further developed my talent for cheapness and meal improvisation--since I haven't been so good at remembering to ask for cash. :-| Especially since some embarrassed kept popping up every time.It's been irritating for me, and I'd be amazed if he hadn't repeatedly gotten aggravated at the inconvenience. But he's been remarkably patient with my "weirdness" (a.k.a. disability)--and hasn't once suggested that it's my own damned fault, so I can make myself call the bank or not have any money. I still don't really expect that level of understanding/respect.
In a while, I'm planning to head off to break in the new card at Sainsbury's. Beforehand, though, I'm sorely tempted to make sure it's really activated at an ATM, to avoid potential embarrassment and phone calls to the bank at the checkout!
I also lost my Virginia driver's license in the wallet, so will have to apply from scratch once we hit California, which is really inconvenient in itself. (And expensive, since I'll have to get a driving school vehicle for the road test, with the DMV's weird insurance documentation requirements.) Virginia won't let you request a replacement online without the customer number on the license (helpful!), and I am so not going to fly back home just to go to the DMV. Next time I get my paws on a license, I'm keeping a photocopy in a safe place, with the passport one.
That should be fun for a while, especially since
vatine has never really needed to get a license. Getting a British one requires a lot more hassle than just walking into a DMV branch (especially if you're a foreigner with chronic health problems!). Neither one of us wanted to mail our passports off to Swansea, and they require a remarkable amount of hoop-jumping if you have just about any kind of health problem (which includes "any mental ill-health condition (including depression)"#).* So we've both made do without. At least his future workplace runs employee shuttles, so he should be able to get to work without too much trouble until I get things sorted out.
_____________
* Unfortunately, the weird phrasing seems to reflect some attitudes.
