Car (or bike) Chat!

[Macca]

No worries. However, you can see my point and the benefits of being able to do such instead, for free, via a simple mouse click

Marco.

Yes but I've only had to do two bank transfers in my entire life so really not something I require. And one of those was buying a turntable for a mate and he paid the fee.

[dave2010]

Nightmare mate, and sorry to hear it. In my circumstances, I'm not talking even about going into Wrexham. The village shop, which sells all sorts and has a PO inside, also has a cash machine outside, is just down the road.

Apart from the lack of branches, when they close they often leave the cash machine for a while - then remove it. OTOH sometimes thieves get there first - and take the whole cash machine. That happened to several places in the area where I lived a few years ago. Another issue was whether there was any money in the machines, even if they hadn't been trashed - often there wasn't at weekends.

Then - you might like this one - "problem solved". Ba-boom. The Coop had a cash machine put inside. Worked fine - for a while. Keep reading!

THEN - thieves/vandals simply drove a car or van right through the shop window to trash the cash machine!

[Not Macca - with his burner phone trick I hope. I hadn't thought of that method.]

[Marco]

Apropos sat-nav, I have two: one built into the car and a Garmin device, the latter of which I use. I do have a road atlas, which I used to keep in the car, but it's 20 years out of date! The sat-navs are all I need for 'last mile' navigation - provided of course you know the exact address of the destination!

Lol - I think my AA road atlas is 2018, so a few years out of date, but still ably usable, and it does get used, especially on long journeys to somewhere I'm unfamiliar with and haven't been before, so Del will be navigator with the atlas on her lap, which is used in conjunction with the sat-nav, so we have a wide-scale view of the road networks in our vicinity and can 'plan ahead'.

There's nothing to beat a detailed, up-to-date road map, opened up and folded in a way that allows you to see where you left from and where you're going to on a single page, as in that respect sat-navs are limited (in comparison) by their tiny screens. Plus map reading is also a skill and so makes you use your brain, which stops it from getting soft from all its thinking being done instead by 'machines'!

How many people these days can perform simple mental arithmetic or spell words correctly without having to use Google or rely on spellcheckers? Whilst certain gadgets/forms of tech are no doubt useful, for me people today rely too much on them, not only causing laziness, but eroding their ability to perform basic calculations that any well-educated and intelligent person should be capable of doing.

Anyway, I digress... So with map in hand, Del will keep me right and ensure that the sat-nav is definitely steering us in the right direction, which as we know isn't always the case as they're not infallible! Plus, if we hit a traffic jam on the motorway, a road map can be very useful for identifying an 'escape route', via exiting at a forthcoming junction, onto another road that will take us to our destination and avoid sitting still in the traffic jam.

Try doing that with a sat-nav!

Marco.

[Marco]

Apart from the lack of branches, when they close they often leave the cash machine for a while - then remove it. OTOH sometimes thieves get there first - and take the whole cash machine. That happened to several places in the area where I lived a few years ago. Another issue was whether there was any money in the machines, even if they hadn't been trashed - often there wasn't at weekends.

Then - you might like this one - "problem solved". Ba-boom. The Coop had a cash machine put inside. Worked fine - for a while. Keep reading!

THEN - thieves/vandals simply drove a car or van right through the shop window to trash the cash machine!

[Not Macca - with his burner phone trick I hope. I hadn't thought of that method.]

Lol... Perhaps the answer is to live in a low-crime area?

I've never seen anything like that happening around here, indeed I've often forgotten to lock my car, and left it sitting outside all night like that, sometimes even in the summer with the windows down!

And, touch wood, nothing has ever happened. Of course it could have easily, but in general it's just not that kind of place.

Marco.

[Marco]

Yes but I've only had to do two bank transfers in my entire life so really not something I require. And one of those was buying a turntable for a mate and he paid the fee.

Sure, but the point is, it costs nothing and it's easy to set up, so my view would be to do so and have access to its benefits, *if* you ever need them, whilst in the meantime carrying on as usual.

There's no advantage to be be gained by shunning them, simply because you're an intransigent old creature of habit!

Marco.

[struth]

they tried to get to the machine in aldi here a couple of years ago by crashing a vehicle into side of building. it was a standalone machine. they failed to penetrate enough tho and left an unholy mess.
ive left my old car and my house unlocked before and no one noticed. not something i'd do deliberately tho. i used to leave one of my sheds unlocked sometimes but not now. its a different world now. still fairly good here but not what it was.

[struth]

Sure, but the point is, it costs nothing and it's easy to set up, so my view would be to do so and have access to its benefits, *if* you ever need them, whilst in the meantime carrying on as usual.

There's no advantage to be be gained by shunning them, simply because you're an intransigent old creature of habit!

Marco.

like you and smart phones eh

[struth]

Ive been desulphating a few batteries from my scooters in shed. then load testing etc. its improved them well.. unfortunately i fell slipped sticks on a slidy bit.. buggers.. could have been worse but i was in very little pain and now full of it agafn.. tis no fair.

[Marco]

like you and smart phones eh

Lol, not at all. They wouldn't improve my lifestyle in any useful or desirable way, so there's simply no point in having one. Whereas, an Internet bank account is something that is (and does). There are lots of areas where I've embraced the use of tech because it's advantageous for ME. If not, then what's the point?

I'm neither intransigent nor a technophobe. If I consider the latest new thing to be no-brainer better than that which it replaced, then I'll adopt it, if not I won't and continue as I was doing before, which for me is the sensible course of action.

As I've said many times before, it's about cherry-picking which forms of tech are genuinely an asset to YOU, and which aren't, and therefore simply adopting use of the former, rather than being a 'gadget junkie', and using everything, simply to be up to date or 'fashionable'.

Marco.

[Macca]

Lol, not at all. They wouldn't improve my lifestyle in any useful or desirable way, so there's simply no point in having one. Whereas, an Internet bank account is something that is (and does). There are lots of areas where I've embraced the use of tech because it's advantageous for ME. If not, then what's the point?

As I've said many times before, it's about cherry-picking which forms of tech are genuinely an asset to YOU, and which aren't, and therefore simply adopting use of the former, rather than being a 'gadget junkie', and using everything, simply to be up to date or 'fashionable'.

Marco.

I agree which is why I don't bother with internet banking. There's 5 cashpoints within 5 minute walk and I usually make sure I have at least a hundred in cash on me at any time so even if they are all empty or out of order (which has only happened once, on the Monday night of Easter Bank Holiday) I always have enough to tide me over.