LJ notification system in the poo

For those who don't follow lj_maintenance, notifications have been down since some time yesterday (or earlier). Since my notifications from yesterday still haven't arrived I presume it is still down or they're still working through the backlog.

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_maintenance/126582.html

Changing banks - or not

Some recent research* indicates that people typically consider changing banks to be a much more difficult process than it really is.

*The title of this article is "Survey shows why customers change banks" - the article then focuses only on why they don't change banks. #fail NZ Herald.

"Interestingly, people's perceptions were that the financial cost of switching banks was high when in fact it is not, because the new bank often waives fees or contributes to legal costs to get new customers," she said.

People also had an "ingrained" perception that there was considerable hassle involved in changing banks.

Despite my ever-growing contempt for ANZ Bank's institutional incompetence I remain with them for two reasons

- I don't want to have to deal with the legal required to transfer the mortgage. Once more, when I close it off will be sufficient thank you. The end is on the horizon. Also being self-employed I probably won't be able to replicate the current nifty arrangement, made when I was on a reliable salary.

- I have an irrational and perverse attachment to my savings account number, which is an old Post Office Savings Bank number I've had most of my life (my parents opened the original account). There can't be that many of them left and I'm sure it grates on the ANZ systems to have to cope with it. For this reason I'm probably actually going to hold on this account for my EFTPOS/cash needs as long as I possibly can even after moving my heavy-duty banking elsewhere :->

The researcher actually suggests

Among her recommendations for banks to consider was the possibility of account number portability, as was now required for cellphone service providers.

I don't think this is a bad idea, just a bloody impractical one unless you're rebuilding the banking sector from the ground up. Ask anyone for Telecom/Vodaphone/et. al. who has had to deal with the integration of number-portability into those systems, and the chaos ensuing from not being able to tell if someone is your customer just by looking at their number.