This is a bit of rant... BUT forgodsake Banking! Wise up.

My EFTPOS card, the one I use every  week, expired on the weekend. I know this because I had the uncomfortable experience of it being declined at the supermarket. My bank had neglected to send me out a replacement card, something so basic in the customer service world that its astounding!

Then I call up the card helpdesk (you can't do this online!), to order a replacement. Here's the advice they gave me. "Go into a branch".  This it turns is is pretty reasonable advice, because if I did order the card over the telephone, i'd not only be charged $15 for the pleasure of providing this bank more electronic fees revenue, it would take 2 weeks to arrive. God forbid.... 

So now this mob of incompetents have inconvenienced me yet again by making me go to their highly expensive real-estate to obtain something they should have just provided in the first place. Thats crap...

In a 2.0 world, what would be different here? Well, my new card would have just arrived. It would come with a recommended banking plan based on a good analysis of my card usage.  It would have the ability to purchase services online (like a credit card). It would tell me that if i only made 2 more transactions a week, i could get a discount. It would be so slick that I would want to move my other business and personal accounts to this bank....i could do ALL this over the internet, i would never have to go to a branch, deal with a person and accordingly my fees should go down. This is obvious because in dealing with me, they save loads on personal and building costs....