Car registration and licence renewal - sticky business.

Why is it so hard to remove the old registration sticker from the windscreen? My old one was peeling off on one side and tricked me into thinking it would be a piece of cake to remove it.  Boy, was I wrong! How can it be that one half of something just peels itself off and the other side requires a sand blaster and at least a week to remove?

Armed with my bottle of eucalyptus oil and a palette knife, I thought it would take a few minutes. Half an hour later, the windows were fogged and I was as high as a koala on eucalyptus. It seemed little progress had been made, but there was a carpet of tiny, sticky shavings of the old blue registration sticker all over the front seat.

At last I felt that enough had been removed to allow me to apply the new sticker. I pressed very lightly, hoping that this time next year, the removal process would be quick and easy. I have this thought every year. Every year I am disappointed.

The digital age is yet to reach Vic Roads. Surely we should just have a permanent bar code or a chip or something, but we're still on old, cumbersome technology.

I was actually late with my payment and realised the same day that my driver's licence had also expired. It hadn't been a problem because I only drive occasionally and I had been away travelling interstate. I logged onto internet banking ready to make the payments. I looked at all the paperwork I had received and could find no information about how to pay electronically. I called the call centre and was invited to pay over the phone - a method requiring credit card with only Visa or Mastercard offered as options. I enquired about BPay and was advised that because I needed a photo for my licence that option wasn't offered. In relation to the car registration, I was not able to pay by BPay because the payment was overdue. I would need to go to a Vic Roads office.  I opted to pay by credit card.

When I asked the woman about the lack of flexible payment options, she reminded me that my payment was overdue. Eternal damnation for me!

I confirmed with her that now that I had written the receipt number she provided on the driver's licence renewal I should take that to a "photo point"...? This seemed to be what the booklet and the form suggested.

"NO! Because your payment is overdue, you need to wait for me to send a zero balance data card to you in the mail. You then take that to the photo point. They won't take your photo if your renewal notice is showing a balance."

"Okay. But if I had paid on time, over the phone, I would be able to go to a photo point and they would take my photo?"

"Yes."

"But the renewal would not be showing a zero balance...?"

"I've already explained that your payment is overdue. I've explained that to you."

It truly did feel that the minute the clock struck midnight Vic Roads was going to make the process unbearably difficult - perhaps to motivate me to be more organised in ten years' time when my licence expires!

In the meantime, my car smells like eucalyptus and the new sticker is threatening to curl its corners.

Another epic journey - or where the hell is my credit card?

I've just arrived in Sydney.  By "just arrived" I mean I walked into my hotel room about an hour ago.  I arrived in Sydney two and a half hours earlier having left Melbourne 90 minutes before that. You see I had to hire a car and drive way out west.  In the dark.  It nearly was too - I couldn't find the headlights.  Every time I thought I had them the windscreen wipers would start or the boot would fly open.  Luckily I discovered these things before I pulled out of the (very snug) car space. I needed the navigation system just to find my way out of the car space.  It doesn't work without a "clear view of the sky", which is very hard to have when you're on the ground floor of a multi-storey carpark.  I trusted my instincts and followed the arrows.

I drove and drove and drove and drove and arrived at my hotel.  I went to provide my credit card for the customary credit card imprint and it wasn't in my wallet.  Clearly the trainee who did all the paperwork for the hire car still had it.  I gave it to him so that I was covered for tolls.  Surprisingly the woman who checked me in at the hotel offered to call the hire car company.  I let her.  We could find no one to answer the phone and resorted to calling the accident hotline.  I figured I could claim a lost credit card was an accident.  Luckily I wasn't bleeding by the side of the road, because we would probably be on hold until sometime next week.  The most worrying thing was they had my phone number and I had left them 90 minutes earlier and they hadn't called to say they had my credit card.  I called the bank.  It gave me something to do while I waited for room service and figured out how to fill the kettle.

© divacultura 2013

The bank was excellent.  They put a temporary stop on the card until I could speak to the car people tomorrow and see if they did have my card.  I started to worry that in a moment of ennui I had left the card in the car or in my handbag.  I checked both.  I hadn't.

Room service arrived surprisingly swiftly.  The waitress asked me how my day had been.  I told her.  She asked if she could get me anything else: a cup of tea? a martini? a cuddle?  She looked like she meant it.  If she had been six feet tall, laughing eyes, nicely muscled and a bloke - or George Clooney -  I would have accepted.

No sooner had I ripped the skin off my barramundi than my phone rang.  It was Terrence from the hire car company and he had my credit card.  He was very apologetic.  At least I know where it is and won't be worrying all night.  I don't have time.  I have to figure out a way to fill the kettle so I can make a cup of tea.  Should have taken up that offer.

© divacultura 2013

Identity protection is an uphill battle

Lately it seems I'm receiving requests to do things that other people advise very strongly not to do - hand over a copy of my passport and leave details of my credit card with people.

A couple of the projects I'm working on at the moment, are paying me as an employee rather than as a consultant.  It's been a while since I've been through the engagement process as an employee and the request for identity documents and proof of my work status is the thing that has changed.  I am being requested to provide a copy of my passport which will be held on file.  The reason being cited is so that they know I am allowed to work in Australia.  The most curious part of one of these requests is that the request was made by an organisation for whom I already work sporadically!  At one stage I was advised that every separate department would require a copy of my passport which I thought was bizarre.

I had a conversation with the HR department who told me that they need to be satisfied that I am eligible to work in Australia.  I guess that's fair enough, but what about all the warnings about identity fraud?  Oh - they hadn't thought about that.  I don't need to provide a copy of my passport to everyone in the organisation now.  I reminded them that I'm already working for the organisation and they gave me my favourite answer, "we're required by law".  Of course my follow up question was "which law?".  The response to that was "I'll put you through to my supervisor" which is always a sure sign that they don't know what law, it's just an easy phrase that ends most lines of questioning.

So I speak to the supervisor who tells me again that "it's the law".  When pressed, she tells me it's the "Immigration Law".  "But I'm not an immigrant - I was born here."  Silence.

"I was born in Australia.  I'm not an immigrant.  I'm not sure what your requirements are."

Silence again.

"I've had a look at the Department of Immigration website and employers certainly need to minimise the risk of employing someone illegally.  Given that I'm from here, surely you can ask me to sign a declaration."

"No.  We need to see your passport."

"What happens if I don't have one?"

Silence.

"It's your choice."

And if I choose not to follow their instructions, then I will no longer be able to work on the project, despite being personally approached.  i called Fair Work Australia to see what they thought about the requests but was told they didn't know anything about it.  "We've never heard of this happening" they said.  Well I'm telling you now!

My passport has recently expired.  I'm in the process of renewing it and noticed the warnings about keeping identity papers safe.  Not very easy to do, it would seem.

The other request is to do with security deposits at hotels.  I understand the need for hotels to guard against dishonesty and to secure stuff that unscrupulous people could easily walk away with. There is a wide variety of practices.  Some hotels just want to make sure you have a valid credit card - taking one cent to prove it.  Other hotels are happy with a cash deposit or EFTPOS bond - both refundable immediately.  The thing I particularly rail against is the taking of a credit card imprint and holding anywhere from $100 to $200 as security bond on the card.  The funds are not able to be used, but there has been no actual charge to the card.  This process is done in an instant, but takes between 3 and 7 business days to reverse.

"We know that's a long time, but it's not our fault - it's the bank's."

Having been burnt a couple of years ago, I have learnt not to leave details of my credit card behind.  I did this once and had charges being put onto my credit card long after I left the hotel.  They were not my debts either!

This week in Perth I was booked into a hotel that wanted my credit card so they could hold $150 security bond.  We had the usual question on check-in.  It's another one of those "choices" - you don't have to do it, but if you don't they won't check you in.  When I checked out, I asked for my credit card details to be destroyed (they had a paper imprint).

I was advised that the details would be destroyed after they had contacted my bank.  They told me that this would happen that day but that it would then take 7 - 10 business days for the funds to be released.  Yes that time frame has extended from the original quote.  I said that I wasn't satisfied and that I wasn't prepared to leave my credit card details with them.  It was then revealed that the funds could be released immediately if the hotel faxed the bank.  To do this I would have to provide the bank's fax number.  My cab to the airport was waiting outside and I didn't have the fax number for my bank on me, so couldn't take up this option.

So in the digital age where money exists as code somewhere on the web, to get something done immediately requires a fax to be sent.  I don't buy it.

There are two things I'm going to add to my travel kit - the fax number of my bank and a load and go plastic card that I will put $200 onto specifically for the purposes of security deposits at hotels.  Or I'll leave them cash.  I've tried this before and for some reason some hotels won't take cash as a deposit.  I wonder why?

I phoned Consumer Affairs about this last year.  I received the shrug of the shoulders and was fobbed off to the Financial Services Ombudsman who deal with complaints against financial institutions.  My complaint is about hotels.

The other thing I don't understand is that when you need a refund for a purchase anywhere with a credit card, that refund is processed immediately upon presentation of the card used for the original purchase.  When I raise this point, I receive blank stares.

Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but I like my identity and have read enough about victims of identity fraud to know that I don't want to be one of them!