I set myself a resolution last year - go 12 months without using physical cash. No coins, no notes, no gold bullion, no cheques. I attempted to do all my spending on credit card, Direct Debit, and bank transfer (BACS). It worked! Mostly... Here's where it didn't work, and what I learned from it. Foreign Cash Went to Hong Kong and withdrew £100 in local currency. Was completely unnecessary. Everywhere took card / contactless. We didn't stray away from the tourist trail, which may have …
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It is impossible to contact large companies to report a bug in their software. So I'm reduced to writing snarky blog posts about it in the vague hope that a Social Media Manager will see the issue and raise it with the appropriate team. Welcome to 2017! Google Pay now supports American Express cards in the UK. Hurrah! But if you try to ring Amex from within the app - a problem occurs. Can you spot what it is? The country code should be +44. For some reason, it's missing the +. It…
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Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from an unknown number. I answered it, and a heavily accented voice said "Hello, can I speak to mister..." there was a pause while she tried to figure out the intricacies of my surname, "Ehdan?" I asked who was calling, and she said, "I am calling from American Express with important information about your card. Please can I take you through security?" You know where this is going, don't you? I asked her to prove that she was from American Express. "I …
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I recently read about an innovative telephone call scam. A scammer rings the mark and asks for her credit card details. If the mark refuses, the scammer tells her to hang up the phone, then dial 999 and ask for "Sergeant Scammer of the Fraud Squad". The mark does so, and is connected to what they assume is the emergency services. However, because the scammer hasn't hung up at their end, the call is still active. So the mark isn't speaking to 999, but to the scammer. Pretty devious. …
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