Bank WTF (another one)
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I keep getting messages from Chase (by email) to switch to online statements to "SAVE TREES", you know be more environmental... Same shit from any other bank I ever dealt with...
I got a better idea "Subscribe to NOT GET JUNK MAIL" the junk mail I get (not junk e-mail) will add up to tons more paper compared to how many statements I get. From the exact same banks who send me these emails about saving trees. And I never reply to a single one of them...
Stupid hyppocrites. (stupid firefox for not spellchecking this forum caz i cant spell :P )
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Yeah, how much paper does chase waste sending me checks for 10.83 that have fine print signing over my soul when I endorse the check?
I've heard people say you can actually cash the check and call them up and cancel before you start getting billed. Anybody tried it?
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I also don't get why they have "online statements" anyhow. Every moth it emails me telling me my statement is ready. Umm... how about I just go to your website and look at my account history whenever I need the information?
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I always find that whenever I get a statement I've made a large transaction a few days before which isn't on it (and I don't use my account a whole heap, mainly for buying petrol aka gasoline) so it never actually reflects the amount in my account when I receive it.
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Yeah, I get that. I've never understood why I want to look at out of date information.
What I did love about the letters from my bank, the now infamous Halifax, is that they are signed by the bank's director and well know film-maker Peter Jackson
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Couldn't you just use a 'no circulars' sticker to avoid getting junk mail from other banks? Or is it personally addressed junk mail?
I used to be amused that Peter Jackson shared a name with a brand of cigarettes.
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@NSCoder said:
Couldn't you just use a 'no circulars' sticker to avoid getting junk mail from other banks? Or is it personally addressed junk mail?
I am intrigued by this idea, as I have never heard of it. I think I can piece it together in my head, but please explain anyway.
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@belgariontheking said:
I think I can piece it together in my head, but please explain anyway.
You stick it on your letterbox, and requires your postman to be able to comprehend said sign.
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@PJH said:
@belgariontheking said:
I think I can piece it together in my head, but please explain anyway.
You stick it on your letterbox, and requires your postman to be able to comprehend said sign.Are you serious? And this is for America, not someplace like Britain?
If this is true, you've saved my apartment's wee tiny mailbox a lot of crunched together mail pain.
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@NSCoder said:
Couldn't you just use a 'no circulars' sticker to avoid getting junk mail from other banks?
No good - most junk mail is your regular oblong stuff.
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The dead trees issue has been raised recently with regards to the USPS and a "Do not mail" opt out list for junk mail. The USPS is arguing against such a list as it makes too much money from sending junk mail. I even read an article (which I can't find now) where the USPS said that postage rates would have to go up to compensate a drop in revenue from sending junk mail. Of course because of the large volume of junk mail, those advirtisers get special rates anyway.
For non-US readers, while the mail box is owned by the homeowner, I believe only the USPS can legally put stuff into it. As such all junk mail is actually officially transported by the USPS. Thus they are obligated to deliver no matter what signs are on the mail box. In my home country anyone can stuff anything into a mail box, and as such junk mail is more likely to be hand delivered by contracted walkers. Thus sticking a sign on your letter box will actually cut down on junk mail.
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@OzPeter said:
I believe only the USPS can legally put stuff into it.
Sort of. http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmailbox.htm
It's a federal crime to deposit mailable matter without postage into a letterbox, and many items are officially nonmailable. So, Stan, the answer to your question is yes <font face="Times New Roman">–</font> you can't put anything in a mailbox that doesn't have postage on it. For better or worse, neither can all those guys coming around with advertising flyers, which is why you get stuff rubber-banded to your doorknob or scattered on the lawn.
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My guess would be that there is some law that requires the bank to provide you the information once a month, but doesn't specify the format in which they must provide it. Therefore, they can save paper by showing you the statement online, but they can't get rid of the statement entirely.
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@PJH said:
Sort of. http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmailbox.htm
Actually, that's still not completely correct. No one can open a mailbox except an authorized USPS carrier and the owner of the box (or anyone with a warrant, of course). It's not just because of the postage. If it was, I could plant all sorts of stuff in peoples' mailboxes as long as I affixed stamps to all of it.
Existing residential mailbox laws state that only authorized letter carriers may insert mail into a residential mailbox. A penalty will be imposed for anyone who is not a letter carrier and is inserting mail in the residential mailbox. It is a federal offense for tampering with the mail and a fine or possibly jail time can be the punishment for the offense. Generally, resident mailboxes are for mail use only.
Law For Residential Mail Box - Residential Mailbox Regulations@USPIS Website said:
Mailboxes are considered federal property, and federal law (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1705), makes it a crime to vandalize them (or to injure, deface or destroy any mail deposited in them). Violators can be fined up to $250,000, or imprisoned for up to three years, for each act of vandalism.
Protecting Yourself from Mailbox Vandalism
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TRWTF is this "save trees" nonsense. The trees that are used to make paper are a special hybrid that is grown on farms, nobody is cutting down 300 year old redwoods to send you junk mail. Since these trees are just a crop like any other, the quantity that are grown is controlled by demand, so when you recycle paper or reduce your consumption of paper, you actually reduce the number of trees that are planted, leaving fewer trees in the world.
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@morbiuswilters said:
when you recycle paper or reduce your consumption of paper, you actually reduce the number of trees that are planted, leaving fewer trees in the world.
That still doesn't make sense. If the demand is reduced, harvesting would be reduced. If they harvest any, they'll still need to replant for future harvesting. How does cessation of harvesting decrease the number of trees on a pulp farm?
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@AbbydonKrafts said:
That still doesn't make sense. If the demand is reduced, harvesting would be reduced. If they harvest any, they'll still need to replant for future harvesting. How does cessation of harvesting decrease the number of trees on a pulp farm?
A long-term decrease will result in fewer trees being planted in the first place. I actually don't disagree with reducing the amount of paper in use, though. All paper production produces toxic pollution and consumes a lot of energy, worst of all recycling. Also, paper is biodegradable, which means it's awful in landfills. Sadly, there is still this conception that biodegradable is good. I guess people imagine their trash blowing through some forest and settling under a tree where it rejoins the soil in short order. The truth is that it is dumped in landfills where biodegradable elements often break down and combine into a horrible, toxic sludge. This doesn't happen with glass, metal, styrofoam and plastic because they are so inert.
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@AbbydonKrafts said:
@morbiuswilters said:
when you recycle paper or reduce your consumption of paper, you actually reduce the number of trees that are planted, leaving fewer trees in the world.
That still doesn't make sense. If the demand is reduced, harvesting would be reduced. If they harvest any, they'll still need to replant for future harvesting. How does cessation of harvesting decrease the number of trees on a pulp farm?
If there's no harvesting, there's no profit from those trees. If there's no profit, it's abandoned, and the land is possibly repurposed for other uses. If the only reason the tree exists (to be turned into paper) goes away, so does the tree (or at least when it is used, nobody bothers replanting).
That said, a tree planted for the sole purpose of being turned into paper has no better an effect than recycling existing paper. The important thing isto just quit using so damn much of the stuff for crap like pointless marketing.
What percentage of the paper coming through my letterbox in the last 12 months served a useful purpose? Maybe 1%, tops. The other 99% moved directly from letterbox to bin.
What percentage of the paper coming through my letterbox isn't easily replaced with a more efficient electronic replacement? 0.01% - There's currently no practical alternative for getting my passport to me.
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I HATE when they send me email saying my e-statement is ready. Why not just email the friggin statement itself? ARGH!
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@jetcitywoman said:
I HATE when they send me email saying my e-statement is ready. Why not just email the friggin statement itself? ARGH!
I get those a lot, too. The wording of the subject line throws me off sometimes, such as making me think a payment is late.
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@jetcitywoman said:
I HATE when they send me email saying my e-statement is ready. Why not just email the friggin statement itself? ARGH!
You would rather they send it over teh intarwebs where anyone with a sniffer could see your balance, etc?
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@belgariontheking said:
You would rather they send it over teh intarwebs where anyone with a sniffer could see your balance, etc?
My bank does it for both direct deposits and my available balance on Fridays. I told them to. The ones I owe money to are always vague, though.
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I still get junkmail for somone who lived at my appartment before the previous owner. And some for the previous owner.
I once got a check for... 5 CENTS! Ok? I would rather have the amount required to actually mail me the check, create the special security paper, process it, etc... It cost them more to send it to me. I felt retarded putting it into the bank (fortunately I had a few others with it)
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@RayS said:
There's currently no practical alternative for getting my passport to me.
They could just print it up at their office when you go in for the paperwork. VA used to do that with drivers' licenses. Now I like in Texas and have to wait for that thing to get mailed to me. Grumble, grumble.
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@belgariontheking said:
If only something like PGP existed for making secure communication over email possible. Wait, something like PGP does exist - PGP!@jetcitywoman said:
I HATE when they send me email saying my e-statement is ready. Why not just email the friggin statement itself? ARGH!
You would rather they send it over teh intarwebs where anyone with a sniffer could see your balance, etc?Of course, from what we see of banks around here, we'd be more likely to get ROT13...
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@OzPeter said:
Of course because of the large volume of junk mail, those advirtisers get special rates anyway.
The advertisers get special rates from the Post Office because the advertiser is the one responsible for sorting the mail for delivery (look for a notation like "car-rt presort" on the mail). If they don't sort it in advance, there's no volume discount.
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@vt_mruhlin said:
I also don't get why they have "online statements" anyhow. Every moth it emails me telling me my statement is ready. Umm... how about I just go to your website and look at my account history whenever I need the information?
For people who reconcile their account every month, it's nice to be able to see a traditional statement -- even though information can be continually updated, banks still work on monthly or quarterly cycles.
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@dlikhten said:
I still get junkmail for somone who lived at my appartment before the previous owner. And some for the previous owner.
So do we. We've lived at our current address for 6 years, and we still get mail for people that lived there before.
@dlikhten said:
I once got a check for... 5 CENTS! Ok? I would rather have the amount required to actually mail me the check, create the special security paper, process it, etc... It cost them more to send it to me. I felt retarded putting it into the bank (fortunately I had a few others with it)
I've had that happen a few times, too.
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@RayS said:
If only something like PGP existed for making secure communication over email possible. Wait, something like PGP does exist - PGP!
I wish it was a mandatory feature for sites that insist on e-mailing sensitive information. I was just telling a friend that encryption is available for e-mail, but almost no one uses it because it requires work on their part. Now if the major e-mail clients would incorporate PGP, we might get somewhere with that.
@RayS said:
Of course, from what we see of banks around here, we'd be more likely to get ROT13...
Probably.
