I wondered why I couldn't buy my usual load of junk food from Woolworths :-)

My Solo card was working fine in the cash machines on Saturday but it seems that a lot of shops I went in were having problems, although they didn't know anything was wrong.

Anyone remember the latest range of adverts they did, about not needing cash any more?

Oh, the irony...

Eventually.

Over here in the States, Visa is running a series of TV ads which insult anyone who doesn't use Visa to buy, well, anything, from fast food to clothing. The catch phrase is "Life comes at you fast." The implication is that using cash or checks is much slower than using Visa, which is, of course (1) patently false; (2) insulting to the point that I am nearly ready to tell my bank to either give me a non-Visa ATM card, or I will change banks; and (3) going to be infinitely amusing when (not "if" - I am an I.T. professional, and I promise you it _will_ happen sooner or later) Visa's processing network suffers a major cockup.

The arrogance of these people amazes me. Well, no, thinking about it, I suppose it doesn't. People who don't know WTF they are talking about are usually pretty arrogant on the subject.

Banks/visa/mastercard are the biggest bunch of con artists ever. They are very quick to take money out of your account (always same day) and will charge you intereste at the drop of a hat. Try and get ur money back from them, or hell, want to spend your own money when u want and hey presto! Sorry, the systems are down... Yeah right. Its high time that banks, credit card companies and insurance companies all get their fingers out and start providing a proper service.