Remember when paying bills online used to be easy?

Old:

1. sign into bank account
   
2. click on pre-arranged payment arrangement
   
3. type in amount
   
4. click 'pay'
   
   

DONE,

New*:

1. sign into bank account
   
2. click on pre-arranged payment arrangement
   
3. type in amount
   
4. click 'pay'
   
5. look everywhere for bastard card reader that you forgot you needed
   
6. find card reader
   
7. realise that the device that you have found is actually a calculator. keep looking for card reader.
   
8. get bored. think 'fuck it'. Have a beer and watch some TV.
   
9. cook dinner.
   
10. have sex.
    
11. wake up in the middle of the night thinking "i really must pay that bill".
    
12. look even harder for bastard card reader that looks like a bloody calculator. find it in a random drawer somewere, with a load of pencils, a protractor and a pair of compasses.
    
13. online bank acccount session has expired so sign in again and repeat steps 2-4.
    
14. insert card into card reader. press 'sign' button.
    
15. enter PIN.
    
16. copy the confirmation number from your online banking acount to the card reader.
    
17. enter amount to pay.
    
18. copy authorisation code from reader to online banking account
    
19. click pay.
    
20. go to bed wishing you had just gone down the fucking post office and paid cash like in the good old days
    
    

*steps 5-13 may be omitted if your card reader is always in a sensible, easy-to-find location.

New:

1. Direct Debit
   
2. Drink beer ignoring silly bill problems.
   

I don't like direct debit. Never ever use it. I like to be the one in control, the one who presses the button, rather than it happening automatically at the time and date that 'they' have decided...

May seem a bit silly but it's just the way I feel. It's my bank account, so I send money out of it when I feel like it, rather than other people taking it when they're ready to take it.

Also this allows me to refuse to pay ridiculously high energy bills based on unbelievably stupidly astronomically high estimates (for example one of our first bills was based on an estimate 10 times higher than the actual meter reading), making them send me a proper bill rather than allowing the money to be taken out and then claiming it back later.

I don't use direct debit either.. but it was funnier for me that way :)
It's a lot easier arguing about a payment fuckup when YOU have the money.

I don't have a wankbank that requires some tossy calculator to work shit though so it's a simple matter of typing in a payees details (once, since they are stored) and then keying in an amount and clicking "give cunts my hard-earned".

I like using direct debit thought, mind it end up being a nightmare once you're jobless...

I don't trust fuckers automatically taking my cash. Mind you, I forget to pay shit so often these days it's probably costing me more NOT using direct debit. :S

Paying bills? I'm sorry, I don't understand...

don't trust DD for amounts that can vary. i know somebody who lost £600 to orange mobile when his phone was stolen, even though he reported it asap they still took the money.
he never got it back!

yeah, you have to be careful with DDs, but for small regular amounts it's better.

Actually I lied! I use DD for my bicycle insurance; it's about a fiver a month.

You bank with Barclays too.

I use them for business banking, and this thing just pisses me off. I've resorted to using PayPal as a broker to move my money about, it's considerably easier.

Nah, not Barclays. I use a building society.

Natwest has a similar thing too.