Why are things so hard to log into these days? Just

@SemiRetiredLoveGoddeess what's the spot please?

How do you avoid logins entirely?!

Something else that drives me nuts that everything is an app. I do actually use my telephone for conversations and I need it to have decent battery. So I don't want everything to be an app. What's the reason for that, does anyone know? Is it easier for them to get more data that way?

If they force digital ID on us I don't want it on the phone that I carry around with me.

I do online banking, but only from my computer. I genuinely think that businesses who go back to some kind of paper will do really well.

There was a big hack of conveyancing firms back in November 2023. I completed a transaction just before it happened. They were literally people unable to complete, packed in removal vans ready to go. They would've been better off if these companies were operating systems with paper backup.

Quite honestly, when I was going through my dad's papers for his estate, I felt quite nostalgic. He kept every single piece of paper from his adult life I think! But having looked at these old invoices and things, I just thought, how much easier to get a paper bill and send a cheque in the post!

Don't do logins. Massive pain in the arse. If l buy something online l always do Click and Collect and pick up goods from my local store.branch.

And only but from companies where you can check in as a guest.

Just got a new mobile about a month ago.

And it has taken me nearly all that time to put the spot back on the text icon after a new Version of Android reset it.

I awarded myself a nice cup of coffee , a large bar of Cadbury's Chocolate and a PhD in phone settings navigation.

Don't let them the bastards grind you down.
👍😻🍀

Yes, it's becoming ridiculous. Ironically one of the easiest apps to get into is my bank account.

And as for trying to buy a new phone without a phone (because it's been stolen)... That is a farce of Feydeauesque proportions.

I would laugh at this but it's probably true!

eBay? Why would they need that?

What I'm about to say may possibly warrant a whole other thread

But honestly, I think this day-to-day stuff affects how I feel about work. So on top of the work thing, you spend a disproportionate amount of free time on it as well.

Any line of work at the moment seems to be dominated by tech, even if it previously wasn't.

It’s soon getting to the stage that it so secure only a scammer can access It for me .

It's the bane of my life tbh. Passwords. Endless fucking passwords in order to be able to breathe.

I know its necessary for the security bla bla bla but it's so tedious. I probably spend an hour of the working day checking or adding passwords in order to be able to log into things. It gives me the rage.

EBay was asking for my NI no.
no way….

Yes super frustrating and on occasions complicated/confusing. I'm dreading getting older and not able to keep up with all this stuff...

Compare and contrast with my enhanced DBS for my local council, where there is NO online verification available, so I had to:

-send an email to an email address ("we undertake to reply within 10 days")

• receive email after 9.99999 days giving me an appointment (no choice of day or time, take it or leave it) at council offices a 70 mile round trip from home.

This is part of the larger application process for a private hire licence, and when my DBS comes through it gets physically posted to me. And then I have to make another 70 mile round trip to the council offices to show them that I have my DBS certificate and physically pick up my licence!

I also get very irate at tech that doesn't work properly, but this whole process has had me howling "But why on EARTH isn't there a digital way to do this?!"

I was actually pleasantly surprised that, as part of this entire Kafkaesque process, I also had to renew my driving licence. Download a government app, place phone on passport, it reads the electronic chip in the passport , extracts all your information and your photo, and sends you your new licence within a week.

I'm still not over this miracle of tech making my life easier, tbh.

I recently ordered store cards (nector, club card, sparks card) etc etc and specifically asked for physical cards for this reason. I find it very difficult to coordinate using my phone due to a disability and getting my phone out my bag, trying to get it on, putting in passcode etc and then trying to find apps on it while Im trying to juggle a bag, purse, etc etc. Nightmare

Sarcasm?

It’s also a nightmare when you have to do it for someone else!

The one that drives me crackers is Scottish power.

They email me. Here is your bill. Here is your account number. Blah blah.

click to payment, or indeed log on via website. Enter email, enter password, enter code, please go back to email and follow link there. WHHHYYYYYY.

who is going to log on and any my electric bill. I don’t save details there. It’s so pointless and unnecessary

I laughed when I saw this as I had just used 3 devices, 2 email accounts, a passkey, a code, photo ID and an authentication app to download some files.

It’s absurd. Stuff like this eats up a ridiculous amount of time.

And I live in fear of something happening to my phone because I would never be able to log into anything again.

The Boots points card is now an app only at my branch. So while I used to just flip my card out of my purse and give it to the cashier along with the debit card, I now have to put everything else down while I get out my phone, turn the phone on, type in the code, find the Boots app among a zillion other apps, open it, and then find the ‘My Card’ section before handing it over. What used to take three seconds now takes minutes.

To add insult to injury, the Boots app transferred to my new phone, but without all my details. So I had to go online and type them in again along with the very very long string of numbers that identifies your Boots card account. I think this is what they call ‘enshitification’.

I mostly mean for optional things like a Revolut card. I tried to get one for my DS school trip, but the driving licence validation was so painful that I didn't bother and he just used a normal debit card in the end. LinkedIn validation - I would like to but similar problem with my passport, so I just haven't done it. I have no workaround sadly!

@beeeeeeez honestly you're not gonna break anything don't worry about that

I genuinely wonder how long this can go on

Tech problems are probably an issue in people working or even deciding to work. I know someone who works in a heavily tech based job and two people are leaving because they can't tolerate the stress any more. She is now down to 2 people from a team of four. They're all in their 30s.

I posted about this before. Usually, nobody responds! I also know a tech jpurnalist who is struggling to keep up - and he said to me that they were in an awful lot of people working in tech who can't keep up with it either.

It's going to be the usual case of no training, small numbers of people at the top who have all the knowledge and expected to be disseminated by magic.

Oh, and one of the people who works in tech was almost in tears trying to sort something out with banking app.

I don't consider myself to be good at tech. The most I can do is work on the back end of a website. But when people who actually are good at tech are complaining about this, there is something very wrong.

I think that there is a cohort of people like me who are 45 plus and who have had to teach themselves how to use technology, rather than being taught elements of it by peers, parents or at school.
I had a situation today where I realised I have no idea how to access some of my basic accounts as when a friend set my laptop up 5 years ago, he set the passwords (mea culpa) and I promptly forgot them.
Nothing of mine is synched to anything else as I don't understand what it does.

TBF I now use Ai to explain daily problems to me, and that's a great help.
I still have to run to the loo when something doesn't work though...I laugh at myself, but it affects me that viscerally!

To empathise with the OP, I had exactly the same song and dance applying for a DBS check earlier this year - multiple sites, verifications, photos of photos, face recognition and gaaaaaaaaah!, then a lingering worry that I'd used something un secure and was about to get cloned. Or something.

TL;DR I love technology but am terrified of breaking it!

@TheTortiePuffinNeedsHerBreakfast how do you get round that please?

I hear you OP, it's so frustrating. What really gets my goat is the ones that require you to scan your passport or driving licence on your phone. I have a normal passport and driving licence photo, approved by them, plus a pretty good phone. But almost every time there is some issue with it not being able to be read, background too dark/light yada yada yada. I just don't bother now.

I am in my 60's and really feel all this security and the understanding it requires is getting unusable by some. Each company seem to think we are trained in their particular security process created by some expert. I understand the reason but we are slowly being frozen out of our own accounts etc.

It's so annoying! I recently broke my phone, was trying to order a new one and couldn't get into anything because everyone wanted to send a code to the broken phone. Resolved it in the end but it took a few days rather than the few minutes it should have taken