The Age of Sincerity

ATMs: Two things

josh:

Why don’t ATM cards remember anything about me? Like, for example, my preference for the English language? It’s such a stupid step to have to select my language every time.

Why don’t ATM cards let you pick a second PIN to use in an emergency? It would still let you withdraw money, but also call the police and tell them where you are. If someone holds you up, they wouldn’t know you used your emergency PIN and you still give them your money (and end up not getting shot, hopefully) but the police can respond faster. (In my futuristic fantasy, the ATM sends the police images from its camera which go right to the squad cars, helping them identify the attacker.)

3. Why do they even have the “Fast Cash” option? It only saves you from going through one extra menu screen. That’s not fast, that’s barely convenient. If they wanted it to be fast, they should put it on the screen directly after we enter our pin. I’ve always been miffed at out slow and clunk the User Interface is in today’s ATM’s. I can get e-mail on my phone now. Hey banks, step it up.

I think the “fast cash” option should be called “get your card back before the end of the transaction so you don’t forget it in the ATM because you have probably done that before and that is why you are choosing this option despite that fact that Ron is right and it doesn’t really speed up the process of receiving your cash.” because that really is the only reason I choose fast cash.

Oh and number 2 is a pretty good idea. Why not? Your emergency pin could be your regular pin minus 1 so you don’t have to remember something you don’t use often.

Posted September 28, 2009 at 4:50pm || home