Bank card

Did I regale you with the story of my bank card? No? Well settle back, it‘s a long one.
It was due to expire Nov ‘07, and I took this to mean the start of November. So at the start of October I went to the bank to check everything was okay - cos past experience was that they sent the new cards pretty sharpish and there was no sign. So that time they told me not to worry, it didn’t expire until the end of Nov.
Couple of weeks into November, no new cash card. Trip to the bank - ‘one’s been ordered Mr Eden, but we don’t have access to courier records so can’t tell you where it is’.
3 days before cashcard due to expire, still no new cashcard, trip to bank - nothing they can do ‘it’s on its way’.
Phone up bank day before cashcard due to expire. ‘Hello, Mr Eden here, not very happy, no new cashcard.’ ‘Sorry Mr Eden, it went out 15 Nov and obviously didn’t get to you - we’ll cancel it and order you a new one.’ ‘Great, thanks...’
So cashcard expires, and I end up taking hundreds of pounds out of the bank to tide me over. Not ideal, but shouldn’t last long...
Few days later, Tuesday, courier note turns up - please contact us and rearrange redelivery of your cashcard. Yay - get cashcard next day. Coooool! Phone Natwest, ‘hello, Mr Eden here, can I just check, is this cashcard you sent me the new one or the one I got you to cancel?’ ‘it’s the cancelled one, Mr Eden’ ‘Oh. Oh dear...’ ‘You say a new one has been ordered? There’s no record of that....’ ‘Oh dear. Can you order one then please. Now. I really could do with it. Thanks.’
And this is where it starts to get annoying. Not only do you end up carrying 100s of pounds around with you, plus permanently carry your passport and a cheque so you can get cash out if you need it, there are a lot of things you take for granted that you can’t do without a cashcard - you can’t top up your phone, you can’t buy from Amazon, you can’t buy a travelcard the night before work from the machine, thereby avoiding the morning queues, etc, etc, etc. Very annoying, and I don’t know how people coped before holes in the wall.
So anyway, the cashcard finally turns up the following Monday, just dropped through the door, not recorded delivery as it should have been - but let‘s not worry too much about that. One snag though...no new pin number. Since I’m still surviving on my withdrawn money, I don’t even realise I need the new pin number until I try to use it later that week and almost get the card cancelled by entering my normal number twice. Oh dear... Another phone call ‘hello, I need a pin number don’t i’ ‘yes mr eden’ ‘can you send me one then...’ So this doesn’t turn up until the following Tuesday...
So I’m not normally one to moan about banks etc, and I’ve never had trouble with Natwest before, but they really dicked me around this time, and i had to last almost 3 weeks without a cashcard. towards the end, i saw an ad in the paper saying how people who’d had their cards stolen could get an emergency card straight away - wish they’d told me that earlier...
So anyway, I just thought I’d tell you, cos it’s interesting how you take these things for granted, and what a pain they are when you don’t have ‘em.
Still awake? Hello? Oops...