New credit card - what a pain in the butt
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 09:57AM
After discovering what appeared to be a couple of unauthorized charges to my long-held credit card, my bank insisted I get a new one. With, of course, a new number, expiration date, secret code, etc. Probably a good idea after having my old one for I don’t know how many years.
But man, what a pain in the butt getting a new credit card is.
Despite being a “boomer”, I pride myself in getting almost no paper bills - receiving bills and paying them online. I write fewer than a dozen paper checks a year. I am incentivized to use my credit card since it offers a small “cash back” percentage on purchases. And since I always pay my credit card off each month, I incur no charges for using it.
Of course what this means is that I needed to go back to every damn account from which I receive a monthly or quarterly or annual or biannual bill and update my account information. And that requires remembering or finding my account name and password. And often using two-factor identification to verify I yam who I yam. I’ve spent quite a few hours on this task and will probably find I’ve still missed a few accounts.
Having worked with and enjoyed technology for most of my life, I feel fortunate as a senior citizen to have the skills, equipment, time, and patience to be able to do this. But I often wonder how many folks my age and older can. So many of the people I drive as a volunteer don’t even have smartphones, let alone computers or tablets - or the desire to use them.
So when I hear the plans to cut telephone support for Social Security recipients and reduce the number of Social Security offices to supposedly reduce waste and fraud, I feel bad for those less technologically savvy. Despite having paid into Social Security all their lives, they may really struggle to get their problems with the program resolved, especially those with no tech-savvy relatives or friends.
I guess I should be more grateful for the skills I have, than unhappy for having to put them to use!
Reader Comments (2)
The other side of reducing direct human support from Social Security offices (and Medicare, Medicaid, IRS, etc.) will be an increase in scams targeting the recipients of those services. But that's all part of a larger trend where so-called "tech geniuses" are pushing agencies, businesses, and organizations to install AI systems to deliver customer service.
In the real world, it's pretty obvious that we are a long way from AI being a good replacement for thinking, well-trained people. In the meantime, all of this is going to result in a whole more fraud and waste, not less.
Tim,
In this case, your pessimism is warranted!
Doug