Invalidly Valid

[bugshaw]

I have spent the afternoon fruitlessly wrangling with financial Internet sites, first trying to buy something then trying to set up a PayPal account. I tried setting up a PayPal account 2-3 years ago, jumped a load of hurdles but fell at Verification: our joint bank account was already linked to major_clanger's PayPal account and could not be linked to a second PayPal account. So I just added my e-mail to his account, and we have been sharing.

Now I have a separate bank account, I thought it would be worth trying again. This time I got through several more hurdles, but stuck on the Direct Debit mandate. The trouble is that my bank's correct address is PO Box whatever, BX1 9ZZ. BX1 is not a geographical postcode; there is no city associated with it. PayPal insists, however, that I enter a valid city in the City field. I ended up going with 'not applicable' which was accepted though may trigger some error handling in the Royal Mail's automated address-reading system. This irks me!!

On the good side, while researching the postcode I found the Strange Maps blog, a fascinating collection of map representations of all kinds of information. If I were still working in large customer databases, I would be printing out the Postcode Map of Great Britain to stick on my wall :-)

Comments

[muninnhuginn]

Strange Maps has an lj feed (occasionally b*****ing friends' pages with its width): http://syndicated.livejournal.com/strangemaps/profile.

[aardvark179.livejournal.com]

That strange maps site is really good, I'll have to pass that link on to people at work.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

You can set up PP to a credit card - not easier? that's what i always do.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

It doesn't push that as an option. There's the same problem though; it needs to verify by making a couple of small credits. And for a long time MC and I shared a credit card. Eh, I'm getting there.