If you’re anything like me, the phrase ‘I’m sorry your card’s been declined’ is something you’re unfortunately all too familiar with. You know you don’t have the money, but think, what the heck, I’ll try my card anyway. Cue embarrassment – feigned or real – when it’s rejected.
However imagine if your card was declined, and you didn’t have a clue why. Enter in a hoard of angry Barclays customers, when the bank’s internal computers suffered a ‘technical fault’ last week. It resulted in cash machines refusing to issue money to customers, cards being declined at till points, and online transactions failing to complete.
The article I was reading about the Barclays fiasco then goes on to talk about the decline of the cheque, and rise of
- Handy cheque facts…
mobile payments, which got me thinking. Mobile payments sound like a bloody good idea. And yes, before you rave on saying ‘that’s been mooted for ages’, or ‘how behind the times are you’ well yes I do know about them, but I’ve never really considered them a viable option. It would be a handy alternative, like that secret credit card you’ve hidden in your purse or wallet that you use ‘only in emergencies’ (and those shoes that cost too much but you have to have them don’t count). The money would come out of your phone bill, which normally comes out at the end of the month, meaning you could save up in order to pay it off at the time. Nifty!
Let’s take a moment to feel sorry for the guy quoted in the article that was off to buy himself a Ferrari, only to find his card rejected at the garage. FAIL.
Tags: Barclays, cheques, Ferrari, mobile payments
