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Previous: Carl's Jr. hand-scooped shakes | Main | Next: NYT.com search
May 25, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Citibank online statements
Rod Kimball points out:
I signed up to get my statements online to reduce the amount of paper mail I get. This is the main reason for anybody to do this, right?
Now I get this notice every month IN THE MAIL!
BTW, I was able to get my barcode scanner to scan that bit of code above the black rectangle and guess who's address it revealed?
BTW, just kidding.
ha! that's killer...
it's the same with my direct deposit paycheck every month: they mail me a "notification of deposit" with enough personal and bank information that I'm more afraid of this notice being stolen from my mailbox than I ever was my paper paycheck.
Actually, the scary thing (some might say, the truly broken thing) is that the barcode DOES contain the submitter's address. In fact, that barcode is designed so that it alone is enough to deliver a letter. Based just on the barcode, I now know the street address of the building where it was delivered, the specific apartment number it was delivered to, the number of floors in the building, and the number of apartments on each floor.
Don't believe me?
I'll just say that this apartment is on 7th Ave. in Manhattan, on the 5th floor.
Kinda creepy, huh?
Yeah the Barcode is hand readable on letters.. this kind of Tree-wasting is stupid. My aunt called 1 of the credit card companies to get her CC statement all electronic, and the person she got on the phone said it was Federal law that they had to mail statements(even though I have none of my CC statements mailed and same for her). if there really is such a law(I doubt it) A lot of companies are violating it. It would seem stupid to require a piece of paper with 95% of the information someone would need to start using someone else's credit card without their permission.
You probably didn't give them an email address to send this notification to. I get email notificiations for all of my online statements.
I had the same thing with my bank. I took the letter to the bank and told them to not send this to me anymore. They also said -federal law this or federal law that - I then said, 'Good. Cancel all my accounts and I will go to (...bank name. Just pick one that is on the other side of town. Random choice) where they don't send these useless monthly statements. I didn't have to change banks because they said they would 'make an acception'. Since then I have not had a single piece of paper from them. Only the year-end report. Otherwise nothing.
Really the bank 'made an acception'? I'd cancel my account and go with one that would 'make an exception'.
I am sure that I've now made 6 spelling mistakes and at least 10 gramatical errors.
Hey, josh!
Make that 7 spelling mistakes LOL
And getting the monthly statements must be annoying. Just do what Rooknut did!
ROFL ROFL
:P XD
The best part is the "This notification is part of the All-Electronic Program[...]." That's irony at it's finest.
My insurance has a "Turn off paper" option which I chose and I still get notifications in the mail when they make a deposit to my account. The paper company had hemp outlawed to avoid competition; you think they are going to let a little underground, crazy thing like the internet change things!
Yes, this notification is quite ridiculous, however it is better than not receiving any statements at all. In my case, Citibank was refusing to send me regular monthly statements, forcing me to use the online account system. Apparently, they had a policy that only allowed paper statements to be sent when a payment was due. Sounds reasonable until you realize that if you pay more than the minimum amount due each month, you will never receive a statement. So you're forced to remain on their minimum payment schedule if you want to receive statements. This is a really shady practice. I requested several times for them to send me paper statements, even threatening to switch to another bank. They refused, so I just paid off the loan and closed the account, will never deal with Citibank again. The point is that online banking is not convenient for everyone, and they should be able to accomadate the needs of their customers. This earns a double broken rating from me!
Citibank is broken. The whole world is broken.
By the way, keep all your money under your mattress, like I do. Oh my god what have I done. Please dont tell anyone about this note, in fact, just ignore this whole thing. Thanks a lot. Bill.
LOL woops.. something got broken here in submission
he should of sent it in with an alias.. now there's really no reason for Rod to have blanked out his last name on the statement....
I just received a fax from my bank, telling me to check my e-mail. I did, and found an e-mail from them telling me to check my mailbox for an important notice. So I ran as fast as I could out to my mailbox, where, sure enough, there was a letter from the bank. I opened it immediately and found a note telling me to call the bank ASAP. I did, but got a recording telling me to check my fax machine....
Hey Roger Z., Your bank giving you a workout? or just the run-around? I'll do you a favor, first, run right now back to your mailbox for a special surprise. Go on, RUN FAST, I'll wait.
OK, now I've just got you to burn a few calories. Run back again, I'll time you. GOOD!
C'mon. There's nothing creepy bout that bar code (POSTNET - POSTal Numeric Encoding Technique). It's designed to speed up delivery and cut down costs. It's no more scary than the ZIP+4 number (nine digit ZIP) which is not secret and anyone can look it up. In this case 10026-3638. The additional four digits usually identify street, block, building, group of apartments...etc. (depending on the area) within the ZIP code. Only difference is that this eleven digit POSTNET contains extra two digits (delivery point) at the end. Those represent last two digits of the street address, mailbox or apartment/suite number. In this case 53.
So the whole creepy mystery is: 10026-3638-53
10026 - New York, NY (NW Bronx)
3638 - 1845 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd, (apartments 1C, 2C, 3C, 4C and 5C)
53 - Apt. 3-C (which should be on the 3rd floor not 5th, but who knows)
I'd say that leaving the bar code for everyone to see if you want to keep your address private is broken. Especially when you don't need any scanner to decode it. C' Field POSTNET (or DPBC) contains 11 digits (plus check digit) and is made out of 62 bars. First and last one mark beginning and end. Each digit is made out of 5 bars with value 7, 5, 2, 1, 0. So that means:(1 ...||)(2 ..|.|)(3 ..||.)(4 .|..|)(5 .|.|.)(6 .||..)(7 |...|)(8 |..|.)(9 |.|..) exception is (0 ||...)
BTW, the paper notification... yeah, broken.
Hey Rod! nice shirt, that shade of blue looks good on you. How come you're frantically packing all your belongings into boxes? Are you moving?
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Previous: Carl's Jr. hand-scooped shakes | Main | Next: NYT.com search
the people they buy paper from made a shady deal with somebody to keep the mail flowing no matter what.
Posted by: gmangw at May 25, 2006 12:17 AM