It’s fitting that I’ve had this starting-over-when-I-didn’t-mean-to experience with this blog, because my debit card has also decided to stop scanning again, which was one of the first things I blogged about.

This happened last weekend at my local convenience store. I was there to get gas, but the automatic pay-at-the-pump wasn’t taking the card. Then I went inside and tried to deposit a check in the ATM machine, which is one of my bank’s machines. It gave me a big blinking error message, the kind they use on “24” when the device is about to detonate.

So on Monday I went back into my bank branch to order another card and desposit my check. Now granted, the clerk probably missed my whole “my card won’t swipe again” spiel at customer service, but the first thing she did when I appeared at her station with my desposit slip was to offer me a card reader so my account would pop up.

This is ironic but for the fact that the action of swiping a card is now so ingrained that an unswipable card feels as anachronistic as a rotary phone. The clerk will pause and stare at the card reader for a beat, as if hoping it will tell them what to do now. Then they sigh as they remember that they have to punch in that mother-number.

Why does my card keep dying on me? That’s the $64,000 question. The customer service dude said maybe my cell phone was demagnetizing it, as it bumped up against my wallet in my purse. He said, “Call the number on the back of the card. Cards is all they do. They should know.”

That was a line.

I got another friendly banker who knew no more about the mysteries of demagnatization than the next guy, but was more than happy to tell me about the other enticing offers I qualify for.

I get that banks exist to make money, and that their upsell techniques might actually help me. But I’d also guess that this unwillingness to be straight with customers is the core reason why the general public is still against more bank bailouts.

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