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‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

nytimes.com

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Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#41

Post by formerkrogeremp »

rosndo wrote: post #35
kube-system wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first mortgage bill of the year typically includes tax statements for the prior year. Etc.

I thought this thread was about utility bills, but okay, I’ll play along with your incredibly specific example. Is this a weird american thing? At least here in the UK mortgage interest deductions are only applicable to businesses.

You can deduct home mortgage interest [1]. Another way in which homeownership and to an extent NIMBYism is subsidized in the tax code and by government policies.

[1] https://www.irs.gov/publications/p936#:~:text=You%20can%20de....

Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#42

Post by lotsofpulp »

rosndo wrote: post #35
kube-system wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first mortgage bill of the year typically includes tax statements for the prior year. Etc.

I thought this thread was about utility bills, but okay, I’ll play along with your incredibly specific example. Is this a weird american thing? At least here in the UK mortgage interest deductions are only applicable to businesses.

There is a federal mortgage interest tax deduction, and there may also be a state level deduction depending on the state since they each have different tax laws. On the federal level, 90%+ people do not use the mortgage interest tax deduction because doing so would cost them more than not using it.

Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#43

Post by bell-cot »

Spain is not America, for the ADA ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Ac... ) to apply.

Still, I wonder what legal the situation is in the U.S., for that sort of "just tell 'em that they have to use our..." corporate cost-cutting, at less-able customer expense.

Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#44

Post by [deleted] »

justin66 wrote: post #38
rosndo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this thread was about utility bills, but okay, I’ll play along with your incredibly specific example. Is this a weird american thing? At least here in the UK mortgage interest deductions are only applicable to businesses.

> I thought this thread was about utility bills It was, which is why your comment starting with "As a business" was so bizarrely off-topic. > Is this a weird american thing? At least here in the UK mortgage interest deductions are only applicable to businesses. Yes. American homeowners can under most circumstances treat their mortage interest payments as tax deductable.

[deleted]

Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#45

Post by masswerk »

Terretta wrote: post #40

Anyone happen to know the good reason retirees at 80 years old need hours extended outside the daytime window? Of all segments, superficially seems they'd be the most able to visit a branch during business day. But a second thought says that's probably failing to think in their shoes. For example, if they are less able to get around than younger segments, the issue could be being taken to the bank by a working family…

The real problem here is that there are no brick and mortar branche offices with regular business hours any more, only special appointments to be booked using an app.

Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#46

Post by joshstrange »

> it hurts to see that the digital world has dehumanized us to the point that loyalty has lost all of its worth

sigh, this has almost nothing to do with the "digital" world as much as it does with the fact that corporations never cared. If they could have saved a single cent by moving to "tellers"/ATMS that were mechanical in nature, 51 years ago when he first opened his account, they would have. The corporations were never "loyal".

Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#47

Post by Aaargh20318 »

kube-system wrote: post #28
rosndo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you ever need to prove this kind of transactions to the tax man as an individual? As a business it’s your duty to take care of your recordkeeping, print out the invoices if you so prefer.

The first mortgage bill of the year typically includes tax statements for the prior year. Etc.

But the mortgage giver already sends those to the tax authority. How else do you think they have all your mortgage data pre-filled when you file your taxes ?

Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#48

Post by diek00 »

Last year my bank, Scotiabank, increased its profits be from $6 billion the previous year, to $9 billion. And while they can be helpful, try calling them on the phone. A painful process to deter you from calling them. I had to call them yesterday. When I finally got to talk to a human, she took my number for a call back, I am still waiting . I have no idea how the elderly deal with this blatant corporate greed.

Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#49

Post by everdrive »

masswerk wrote: post #25
ilamont wrote: post #8

The OECD published the results of a massive survey of member countries some years ago, titled "Skills Matter" ( https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/skills-matter_978926... ). The researchers defined 4 levels of technology proficiency, based on the types of tasks users can complete successfully. There was a very good summary published here ( https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/ ) and excerpted b…

Something I observe with people new to computing at an old age: They try to reduce any task to "below level 1", aiming at writing this down as a sequence of atomic steps of a recipe. There is no confidence in being able to remember how a task is to be achieved at any future point. There is also no confidence and therefor no interest in acquiring the basic grammar of user interfaces. (E.g., double-clicking is not link…

This was my experience for years when I worked in tech support. It seemed like every computer task was just a list of steps. They had to ask "do I left-click, or right-click" on every step, because they had developed no "theory" for what a left-click is, and why you'd use it vs. a right-click. It seemed like if they ever missed a step, or a step required them to deviate from their plan, they were entirely lost.

I haven't done tech support for years (last was in ~2008) so I don't know if people are generally more savvy or not.

I also want to be clear: I'm not mocking anyone for lack of knowledge here. There is a huge population of people who cannot use computers properly. I don't believe that the solution is "make computers easier for people." I believe the solution is: customer service reps, paper billing, and other non-computer alternatives must be available for any service which is even remotely-important.

Re: ‘I’m Old, Not an Idiot.’ One Man’s Protest Gets Attention of Spanish Banks

#50

Post by jeromegv »

adriand wrote: post #36
Macha wrote: post #3

I've had to assist an elderly neighbour after her phone company cut off her phone service. Why? The way she had paid for it for the preceding 40 years was she would get the paper bill in mail, and then go down to the post office and organise payment using the details in that paper bill. They switched her over to paperless billing with an email that they've done so but you can opt out. She either did not understand th…

I recently endured a Kafka-esque nightmare with my bank. I had this personal VISA card for several years but I rarely used it because I also have a Mastercard that I prefer. Anyway, two years ago when I started my current venture I opened a business bank account with my preferred bank for business banking (same bank I had the personal VISA through), so I applied for a business VISA. At the same time, I told them I wa…

Same thing happened with me and MBNA, they just never sent me physical bill OR an email for a transaction I had no idea occurred (because I had canceled the card!) and then put a mark on my credit report because I had a debt that was not resolved. All of this for... $7
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