I’ve been paying most of my bills using my bank’s online services for a couple of years now. I like it a lot. The savings in time is not insignificant. And, since I have about a dozen accounts that are paid monthly and another ten or so store accounts that are paid only when I actually charge something, I figure the convenience of banking online saves me five or six dollars in postage every month. That’s not a huge amount, but you also have to figure the time and the inconvenience of stocking up on stamps. And checks aren’t cheap, either.

 

I have friends who would not touch online banking on a dare. It frightens them. Maybe they’re right – I know there is always the danger of some of the bad guys getting in there and stealing stuff. But, in my case, I’ve decided that the convenience outweighs the risk. Online banking, in my book, is right up there with garage door openers and cell phones.

 

A few days ago I got a letter from the Topeka Water Department. It was a fill-in-the-blank form letter addressed to “Dear Customer,” so right away I knew the problem it was dealing with was common to more than a couple of water users. It called itself a “friendly reminder,” and asked me, when I make online payments in the future, to make sure my account number has all the numbers in it and that the dash is placed properly. There was a blank where someone had written my account number, complete with the dash (properly placed).

 

Sure thing, I thought. That’s not too much to ask. I immediately went to my computer and pulled up my account on my bank’s web site. I found the Water Department information, changed the number, and hit the Enter key. “Not so fast,” said my bank via my computer. “The account numbers for the businesses to which you want to send money must be in one of the following formats….,” and there followed a screen full of configurations which my bank’s computer would recognize. Not one of them had a single dash in it.

 

I called my bank and talked to one of the friendly people who know about those things. Sure enough, their online services will accept only numbers and spaces – no letters, and certainly no dashes.

 

My next call was to the number listed on the form letter from the Water Department. The woman who helped me confirmed that my online payments could not be properly credited unless the account number contained a properly-placed dash.

 

“But my bank’s online service doesn’t allow dashes,” I told her.

 

“You can pay your bill from our web site. We accept credit cards,” she told me.

 

“I don’t want to put my water payments on a credit card. I want to use my bank’s online service.”

 

“Well, you just can’t pay your bill that way,” she replied.

 

“Since I’ve been paying my bill this way for a couple of years now, why am I just now hearing about this?” I wanted to know.

 

“We just recently changed banks, and the one we’re using now can’t do without the dash.”

 

Oh, okay.

 

So what do I do now? Whose fault is this? Whose responsibility is it to make sure that all these technologies line up properly?

 

As with so many newly-acquired conveniences, we can always go back to whatever it was we were doing before, but it’s painful. It’s like losing the use of the garage door opener in a downpour.

 

So I guess I will be writing, stamping, and mailing a check to the Topeka Water Department every month now. Or at least until someone figures this out. Once I’ve decided whose fault it is, I plan to let them know they owe me 39 cents every month.

 

Whoops, make that 41 cents.

 

TK Magazine, November 2007

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