Why can't the banks get their acts together?

We received new credit cards which are active from tomorrow, but I need to have a whine.

Why, oh why, in this modern day, do I have to call everyone who takes any sort of payment (weekly, monthly or annually) from my credit card and tell them the new details?

This is 2016, isn't it? The banks are making more than $6 billion per half year (or some similar type of figure), but they cannot manage to arrange that I don't have to personally call up every Tom, Dick or Harry to do this manually???

So annoyed .

 

Don't even joke about it. There has not been one year in the past six or so since we first paid interest in advance that they have not stuffed things up. I've stopped making any plans for the last two weeks in June for this reason alone. Every year, I end up chasing them up right to the deadline. How can six loan requests be asked for in one email, and three dealt with and three just ignored?

You may well mock me for my whining, but really, how hard is it to just get it right? It's not like I'm not paying them handsomely for their (lack of) service?

My broker tells me all the banks are as bad as each other too. So moving lenders is no help to anyone.

 

I don't understand why they cannot just issue new cards, same number but with a new expiry date though? I'm going to have to check back through my statement to see who I have to call.

 

This is the case (and our card numbers are unchanged) but it is the expiry date that the insurance companies and companies who hold the details use and apparently the reason they need me to ring each one and change the details. What a PITA.

 

My insurer told me last week (as I was calling about something else) that they now will not accept Amex for future sign-ups. He suggested that I don't update with them, that they will continue to debit my Amex and that some banks will "do something" and the payment will go through. If it bounces, then the insurer will contact me. So I plan on doing that for our insurances to see if I can continue to get three points per dollar.

With this insurer I get an email saying the payment will be coming out, so I'll have notice, and be able to watch to see that it goes through.

So, clearly the banks "can" put things through if they want to.

 

Wouldn't that be nice.

 

It is the same number, but the expiry date and the CCV number are different, so any company I've got automatic deductions from will (more than likely) bounce it back unless I call each company and give them the new expiry date and CCV number.

My insurer, however, did suggest that I not change the number with them. We have more than ten policies with this insurer and they no longer accept Amex (but will continue to accept if it is already set up - me changing details might mean I have to swap to Mastercard). It was suggested that there are times where a bank will do something so that the attempt to debit the expired card still goes through. I'm going to do that, because I'd rather three points than one point per dollar.

I will definitely know when the debit will come out with this insurer as I get an email beforehand and can watch on the due date to see if goes through. If it bounces, I'll get an email, so I'm prepared to watch this to keep the three points.

It is the companies that I cannot remember that worry me. I used Paypal to pay something last night and needed to update my cards with the new expiry dates.