this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024
76 points (98.7% liked)

Smartphone Required (digital exclusion of people without smartphones)

75 readers
2 users here now

This community collects stories, cases and situations where people without smartphones are excluded from society.

Somewhat related:

founded 1 month ago
MODERATORS
 

The closed-source app is exclusively available in these places:

  • Google Playstore
  • Apple store
  • Huawei store

The app will only run on quite recent phones. So anyone who does not keep their OS up to date (which implies periodically buying new hardware for the shitshow platforms people much choose between) are locked out of their account. Also:

  • No walk-in service
  • Over the counter service requires appointment and a fee for many staff-assisted operations
  • No paper statements. No phone → no statements.

The app requires SMS 2fa, so non-phone or landphone users: don’t even think about trying to use an android emulator.

If you want to close your account to escape this shitshow, you have 2 options:

  • In the app use the account closure feature, OR
  • Send a shit load of sensitive information (ID/passport, utility bill, bank account numbers to close, account numbers of your new external account to transfer the money to, etc) via Google (gmail) from an IP address that Google accepts.

(edit) Worth mentioning an aspect of these cashless banks that should be embarrassing for them: when you close an account, they have no cash so they cannot pay you your balance. You can pull money from an ATM but obviously only in denominations of paper banknotes. So how do you get the rest out? They expect you to open an account elsewhere and transfer it. How silly is that? Maybe you don’t want another account, or maybe you’re moving to a completely different part of the world and the transfer cost will exceed what remains.

You can hack around this various ways, like dining out and paying an exact amount by card and the rest by cash. But really, banks should be embarrassed they cannot give you cash. They shouldn’t need a vault just to secure €20 or so in change.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Not sure what you mean.

I mean going to a normal store and asking to withdraw money.

Some will change a fine for that and some won't.

But yeah I agree that banks should have at least a few physical locations with cash. But I doubt most banks in Sweden have that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ah, we call that “cashback” when you use a grocery or convenient store cash register like an ATM. I did not get the impression you could ask for any arbitrary amount, but if so then that would solve that problem (case 1).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't know much about it but I assume that stores are more likely to help you if you ask for a very small amount like 10€ since that wouldn't destroy their cash reserves for the rest of the day.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

My question was more about denominations. I do not know if cashback services allow odd amounts. Most people ask for €20.

But regarding limits, different stores have different limits. Generous stores will let you pull out as much as €150, but often the limit is €20.