Enough numbers already

Last night I was about to leave the building I clean on weekday evenings and found that the door release button had been damaged. I was trapped. We don’t use anything as old fashioned as a key to get in and out, we rely on a door code that is changed from time to time. Having failed to attract the attention of passing pedestrians (there was a car park between me and the street) so that I could tell them the code through the letterbox and have them punch that in I ended up calling The Attached One on my mobile phone. He dropped everything (in this case dinner) to drive over and rescue me.

Pin numbers seem to rule my life. I need them for bank cards, key cupboards, catalogue orders, etc., etc. And that’s apart from having to remember passwords which also have to be changed regularly to keep out all those little monsters who get their fun by invading computers. I don’t know how I manage to remember any of them and there is usually hell to pay if I can’t.

The irony is that although these codes are meant to reduce crime there are those occasions that you read about where someone has been effectively kidnapped, marched to a cash point and been forced to reveal that code. Nothing as old fashioned as stealing the cash you’re carrying, they want to steal your entire bank balance. You even have to be careful that the ATM you are using has not been rigged in some way. “Have you noticed anything unusual about this cash machine?” Well, no. And how come I never come across one that hands out money by accident? “Have a £50 note, no really, have another.” I used to think of cheques quite fondly but they have become a nuisance as they take so long to clear.

Just to make things interesting I sometimes say the number out loud without planning to. I now try to think “one, two three, four, five” as I type in the number and “enter” to override this habit. I remember the amazed look on one man’s face as he waited behind me to use the ATM when this must have happened. Fortunately he wasn’t a mugger.

I was quite a fan of online shopping but I am rather wary of it now. Last year I signed up for a system that checks that your card is being used by the right person (another password) that I came across during a transaction. It meant registering the card I use with that system but it was only after completing the form that I began to wonder whether the bank logo was as I remembered it. I called the bank in a hurry to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake and it turned out that it was OK but the logo they were using was a little different. So far I’ve only come across one other online shop that uses it. So that was worth it.

Occasionally a chip and pin machine isn’t working and I have to provide a signature. Of course it has been so long since I signed anything that it looks as if I’m trying to fake it. I sometimes wonder how anyone with a poor memory manages in these situations but somehow I think it’s going to get worse.
Can’t wait until they introduce iris recognition technology.