I went in to Ulster Bank to lodge money to my landlords account. The reason I went to the branch - and didn’t just do a credit transfer using online banking from the comfort of my palace - is because I like to have a paper receipt as evidence that I paid the rent, should the landlord later despite the fact. Alas, a printout from online banking just doesn’t carry the weight of a real receipt. Remember a receipt, by definition not supposed to be produced by yourself!
As a loyal customer of the competing AIB Bank (who incidentally have the best online banking in Ireland), I entered the Ulster branch sheepishly. Surprisingly there biros actually worked, also the writing desk ran the length of the queue allowing me to complete the lodgement docket while keeping my place in the moving queue.
However, the lodgement docket on the desk looked like some internal piece of paperwork that had been put out accidentally. Firstly it was printed in red ink, now as we all know red means danger! Colour is a wondrous thing, but when it comes to serious documents care must be exercised. Black is always good, the default choice. The only other colour acceptable in my opinion is the corporate colour of the bank, for example AIB uses purple and Permament TSB uses blue, and that is good.
Returning to the red docket, the words didn’t make sense.
- What is the word “house” doing there? At a glance I thought this a a mortgage payment docket
- What does “Details for advice to receipient” mean, it is not even written in proper English
- What is “Description Value”, if it just read “Value” it would refer to the Euro currency amount
With these difficult questions in mind I half filed in the docket, and after watching Sky News UK on the widescreen TV, I made it to the counter, and presented the half completed docket with “House/Truncated Credit” crossed out and Lodgement written instead. I then got a printed receipt, not a counter foil.
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