Wheaties bookmarks for May 16th
Good reading for May 16th:
- Gen Xer more cynic than slacker | Reuters - Reuters personal finance columnist Linda Stern has good advice for young people dealing with money issues. Wesabe is mentioned several times in the article.
- Scammers Randomly Target Checking Accounts - Security Fix - Sam at Wesabe found this article about criminals trying to deposit 1 cent in random account numbers, in order to find real accounts. If you see even very small, unexpected transactions, call your bank!
- Bill would ban some credit card actions - Proposed U.S. legislation to rein in some of the more debt-inducing credit card practices. I like what Senator Carl Levin does on this issue.
- Bringo: Phone Tree Killer. This Is A Genuinely Useful Service - What a cool idea! A service to get through voicejail systems for you.
- Payments News: Growth in Internet Banking Outpaces All Other Banking Channels Ever Launched - May 15, 2007 - Internet banking is growing faster than any other bank channel ever. Obviously we’re big believers that this is great overall.
- Banks’ software download fees add to irritating list - Another article on Wachovia’s fee-for-download decision.
- Official Google Blog: Why does Google remember information about searches? - Interesting post about Google’s use of private data, although I think it leaves a lot unsaid. If they let me delete my own data, I’d be a lot happier.
May 17th, 2007 at 8:37 am
It’s probably only because I started dating a woman who designs automated phone systems, but services like Bringo seem really odd to me. People seem to value low prices and fair labor practices in this country, and yet loathe a method that companies use to reduce their costs! The more phone reps required to maintain a service the higher the cost will be. The alternative is either paying agents less, offering fewer benefits, outsourcing the labor overseas or automating most of the simple transactions.
On the other hand, most automated systems are atrociously designed, so it’s not hard to see why they are hated. But that’s just a design problem! Well-designed automated systems feel like having a conversation, make sense and are not painful to use.