Lost Cash Card

On the way to work this morning I stopped to get some cash from the hole in the wall at Ipswich Station. Unfortunately the machine decided to eat my card, instead I just got a bit of paper telling me to contact my bank. Apparently the fault code on the paper meant that there had been a jam, rather than me being insolvent (I’m guessing like a big printer there was a 20 pound note getting ripped in half somewhere inside!).

So when I got to the office I phoned the bank who were very apologetic and said they’d "rush" a new card out to me, how long will that be… you guessed it, 5 working days. So at best I won’t have a card until next Wednesday! In the meantime to get money I have to go into the bank and go through the rigmarole of queuing up and then proving who I am.

Luckily the security procedures are laughable so it doesn’t take long. When I went in at lunchtime all I had to do was provide the sort code and account number and my post code (that’s ZIP code for friends over the pond). There was no checking of my signature (which they have on file and I would assume is stored in a document management system online somewhere), or any "proper" security information such as mother’s maiden name etc. I think it actually ended up quicker using the counter system to get at my cash than to use the cash machine! A bit of a tip there for anyone with criminal tendencies, just get hold of a thrown out bank statement and you’ve got access to free cash with no hassles!