So, I Ran Out of Paper Checks...

So, I ran out of paper checks recently. I have to get money to my wife so she can pay the bills and rent for me. I go on line to the Union Bank of California website to transfer funds into her UBOC account from mine. I click the "transfers" link and tell it that it's a checking account that I'll be transferring the cash into then I give them my wife's account number, then it tells me that my request cannot be completed and that I should call an 800 number.

I think "what could be wrong?" and go through the process again. Still no luck. I think maybe my wife gave me the number to her savings account by accident. So I tell the system it's a savings account. No luck. I check the account number to make sure I've been typing it in. Yep--it's right. I try it a couple more times with no luck still.

I've got other stuff to do so I put this aside with the intent of checking with TheWife the next time she's around to make sure I got the right account number from her.

The next day, she's here and we try it again. No luck. Tried it twice, still no go. I call the 800 number. I wait on hold about 20 minutes to finally get some annoyingly chipper-sounding guy. He thanks me for choosing UBOC and asks what he can do for me today. I tell him what's up and he tells me the service has been disabled for security purposes. Before I can take a breath to protest, he tells me something about how I can instead order that a check be printed at my local bank and then deposited into my wife's account.

"That sounds a lot more cumbersome than just transfering funds from my account to another UBOC account online."

"Well, I'm sorry, sir, but that service is no longer available."

I tell him that they should change the website to reflect the services that are available. There shouldn't even be a "transfer funds" link, I tell him.

"Well, thank you for your feedback, I'll be sure to forward those comments on for consideration," he said with a fake smile (I could hear it in his voice).

To recap, for security purposes, we can now no longer take advantage of technology making our lives easier. Now, the fact that the bank is FDIC insured is no protection against the few criminals out there. It's those few criminals out there who actually try to, what? Steal money from their own accounts and put it in other people's??? I don't get it.

Regardless, this is yet another example of how corporations/governments are punishing all of us for the crimes of a few, essentially assuming we're all criminals--aka assuming us all guilty before proven so in a court of law. Sure, they're a corporation and have all the rights afforded to an individual human under the US Constitution, but how cynical is it to assume that your neighbors and anyone you deal with every day is a criminal?

THANKS, UBOC! Oh and by the way, your banking site sucks. It's difficult to navigate and no one uses iFrames any more... sheesh!