Warning. Rant coming up.

If you don’t want to hear about my total disgust with a type of institution we have come to rely on rather than of stashing our hard-earned dosh under a mattress, close this now, protect your serenity and go have a cup of tea in blissful peace.

If you want to know what irked me and got the better of me last week, read on. Just remember, you have been warned…

Last week I did that thing I have been putting off for months.

Yes, I had many excuses: too busy, too many other demands, more important things to do, not enough time…  but to be brutally honest, I just did not do it because I chose not to. I did not want to stretch myself that much.

Yes, everything we decide, we choose. That gives us a lot of power, but that is not what this rant is about.

This rant is about what I came face to face with when I was doing my ADMIN. My books, accounts, finances …  that which I have been putting off for months.

You see, the first rule of doing your accounts, or so I have been taught, is to get ALL your paperwork together: invoices, bank statements, credit card and PayPal statements, cash withdrawal slips, receipts, the whole lot.

Nowadays most of it is electronic, but the principle still holds. So I got it all together. My coach will tell you I am a good girl, me. Well, when it suits me. You see, there is that choice thing again.

And so it was that I hunted for my credit card statements which normally arrive via snail mail. Find them I could not.

Now I may be lax in doing my admin, but I do keep my papers together while they are piling up. Not one to be easily defeated, I reverted to the electronic version of said statements. After all, every month I receive a very important email informing me that my electronic statement is available for viewing, printing, downloading, et cetera.

And this is where things started unravelling…

I went to the first one, having successfully passed hurdle number one, that of actually signing in, and opened it up. All proper PDF-n-all as these institutions do these days. So far so good.

Then I looked for the crucial amounts: Opening balance, payment received, transactions, interest charged, closing balance, next payment due.

All that stared back at me was the one and only transaction for that month.

I looked to the left, the right, the top, and the bottom and would have turned it over if it was a piece of paper, but there was nothing. Well, to be honest, of course, there was ‘stuff’ around the virtual piece of paper on my computer screen, but nothing else on the virtual piece of paper.

Puzzled, I looked at the next statement. Same thing. And the next. Same thing. Each of these statements simply showed the transactions for that month.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I am promised an electronic statement online, I expect to see the very same information I would get on a paper statement, otherwise, why bother?

Still, I am a tough cookie and having worked in IT for many a year, I have learned a thing or two about where else to look for information.

So I headed for the summary information just to the left of the virtual statement. The credit limit looked respectable. The available credit looked good. Nothing though to show the outstanding balance. Next payment due shows zero. I’d be so lucky! And there at the bottom, it showed the date of the last payment received. January 2014. No jokes!

I called in the cavalry, Mr IT Architect himself, who recently retired from a financial institution.

‘Come and take a look at this! Have you ever seen such a lot of crud on a banking system? I am speechless!’

I opened up an online help chat session and started typing. I was too disgusted and horrified at what I had witnessed to trust myself speaking to another human being. Even so, the poor guy did not know what hit him and promised to report the issue and get a business adviser to call me. I ended up apologising profusely for dumping on him.

The next day, I got a phone call from an ‘unknown number’. I don’t usually take these calls, but this time I did. It was the adviser. I explained the situation. He did not understand.

I could feel myself getting annoyed and frustrated all over again.

I attempted to explain again. He still did not get it. I suggested we both go online so he could see what I was talking about. Oh, he is not from ‘credit card’ and why don’t I get it linked to my debit account?

‘Because no one has been able to explain to me how to do it,’ I say. Oh, he’ll show me. ‘No thank you,’ said I. ‘I am too upset. Just send me the paper statements.’

I did not have the strength, patience, courage, hair on my teeth, chest or wherever else one might need it, to go through with that. I had reached my limit. Another day, when I have regrouped; when I am not upset; when I can find the words, when I have spare time, spare capacity and ‘bandwidth’ to roll with the punches, I might look at it again.

It won’t be soon. As long as I get the paper statements, I will be fine. Not worth getting so upset about. It is just a messed up online statement after all. It does disgust me though that a financial institution would call it an online statement.

So the question is why? Why did I get so upset?

It took me a while. Finally, I realised it was because I felt disrespected and patronised. I felt I was being fobbed off with a half-hearted online statement. I don’t care that it is an old system cobbled together with newer technologies so it can look current. I don’t care that banking systems are complex. I object to being disrespected and patronised.

There is some relief in being able to name it. In the heat of the moment, it passed me by. Now I know myself a little better. It may just help me stay a little calmer next time when I feel brave enough to face credit card statements online.

Thanks for listening. It is just what I needed☺️

It is true what Mary Lou Casey says:

“What people really need is a good listening to.”  

Photo Credit: RGBStock