or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.
I am not on YouTube or social media
[ 3 minute read ]
Just let me pay
I have a website that is hosted by IONOS, a German company. I chose IONOS as the site host because they are German.
From my IONOS web site hosting account:
'Your sovereign workspace, hosted entirely in Europe
Email, word processing, spreadsheets, chat and more:
IONOS Nextcloud Workspace contains everything you and your team need for your work – with full control over your data, completely independent of US corporations.'
A while ago, I discovered that the EU was considering passing personal data to the USA when EU citizens fly to the United States of America, supposedly for visa-free travel. That same personal data is, due to the extent of the GDPR, not available to EU businesses. Make no mistake, the USA wants everyone's information, if only for targeted marketing purposes, but also, like every country around the world, for security purposes. We thought that China was a bit strong in banning certain persons from shops and areas by using facial-recognition technology. That attitude, I suggest is pretty widespread now. The IONOS statement (above) deliberately mentions US corporations as though IONOS expects its customers to know how gossipy US companies are.
I am reluctant to close my we hosting account with IONOS because they do appear to be sound. But I recently missed a payment and it developed into a real problem for me. Their policy is to have the account holder change the direct debit payment to a re-iterating card payment. As we know, you can't stop card payments and any entity that has out 16 digit long number and the three digit security code along with the expiry date can take any amount of money whenever they like. I balked at this and all hell broke out. I could not pay the arrears because IONOS had no other way to accept payment that actually worked. Their own security protocols prevented me offering my card details. I suppose that is a good thing. I had already checked with my bank that it was not the bank disallowing a single card payment to IONOS. Eventually I used my PayPal account to directly pay (from my card) directly to IONOS.
Now, even though my web hosting account is free from debt and the content is accessible I have an invoice for £0.00, which replaces the £13.20 that should be taken by direct debit later this month. I think IONOS may be doing the usual thing and, recognising their mistake in not realising that UK citizens may not be able to pass their EU card payment scrutiny (which EU citizens have passed elsewhere in the EU), have decided not to charge me for this month. It just goes to show that card payments in the EU seem to be far safer than in the UK.
I shall have to make another PayPal (American) interim payment (in converted US dollars that IONOS have to pay to reconvert into Euros) just to make sure I don't run into problems with arrears. I don't think it is safe to make any online card payments, and I loathe having to do so. I really prefer entities to just stick to the rules and abide by the agreed contract details. Instead, I have had to have lengthy conversations that ultimately results in more confusion and potential card fraud.
You can read edgier posts on some similar subjects on my own websitemartincadwellblog.hegemo.co.uk (opens a new page). Or my site, hegemo.co.uk for my viewpoint on mental ill-health (opens a new page). Look for the tabs at the top of the site, which you may have to drop down. I don't write on there very often though, about once a week or so.
Who wins?
All my posts: https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?u=zw219551
or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.
I am not on YouTube or social media
[ 3 minute read ]
Just let me pay
I have a website that is hosted by IONOS, a German company. I chose IONOS as the site host because they are German.
From my IONOS web site hosting account:
'Your sovereign workspace, hosted entirely in Europe
Email, word processing, spreadsheets, chat and more:
IONOS Nextcloud Workspace contains everything you and your team need for your work – with full control over your data, completely independent of US corporations.'
A while ago, I discovered that the EU was considering passing personal data to the USA when EU citizens fly to the United States of America, supposedly for visa-free travel. That same personal data is, due to the extent of the GDPR, not available to EU businesses. Make no mistake, the USA wants everyone's information, if only for targeted marketing purposes, but also, like every country around the world, for security purposes. We thought that China was a bit strong in banning certain persons from shops and areas by using facial-recognition technology. That attitude, I suggest is pretty widespread now. The IONOS statement (above) deliberately mentions US corporations as though IONOS expects its customers to know how gossipy US companies are.
I am reluctant to close my we hosting account with IONOS because they do appear to be sound. But I recently missed a payment and it developed into a real problem for me. Their policy is to have the account holder change the direct debit payment to a re-iterating card payment. As we know, you can't stop card payments and any entity that has out 16 digit long number and the three digit security code along with the expiry date can take any amount of money whenever they like. I balked at this and all hell broke out. I could not pay the arrears because IONOS had no other way to accept payment that actually worked. Their own security protocols prevented me offering my card details. I suppose that is a good thing. I had already checked with my bank that it was not the bank disallowing a single card payment to IONOS. Eventually I used my PayPal account to directly pay (from my card) directly to IONOS.
Now, even though my web hosting account is free from debt and the content is accessible I have an invoice for £0.00, which replaces the £13.20 that should be taken by direct debit later this month. I think IONOS may be doing the usual thing and, recognising their mistake in not realising that UK citizens may not be able to pass their EU card payment scrutiny (which EU citizens have passed elsewhere in the EU), have decided not to charge me for this month. It just goes to show that card payments in the EU seem to be far safer than in the UK.
I shall have to make another PayPal (American) interim payment (in converted US dollars that IONOS have to pay to reconvert into Euros) just to make sure I don't run into problems with arrears. I don't think it is safe to make any online card payments, and I loathe having to do so. I really prefer entities to just stick to the rules and abide by the agreed contract details. Instead, I have had to have lengthy conversations that ultimately results in more confusion and potential card fraud.
You can read edgier posts on some similar subjects on my own website martincadwellblog.hegemo.co.uk (opens a new page). Or my site, hegemo.co.uk for my viewpoint on mental ill-health (opens a new page). Look for the tabs at the top of the site, which you may have to drop down. I don't write on there very often though, about once a week or so.
Learn how I introduce and describe a character by getting another character to do it: https://www.hegemo.co.uk/creative-writing/