Saturday 16 November 2013

Cookies are bad for you


I was online researching for travel insurance. We are going on a cruise next month around New Zealand. Most times in the past I have not bothered about travel insurance gambling that nothing would go wrong requiring me to spend money of any significance but as you get older you have that realisation that....well....insurance might be...helpful.

I decided to go with my health fund provider. This involved scrolling through screen after screen providing personal information, health information (don't they already know that from my health claims?), selecting a level of insurance, agreeing to terms and conditions, attesting to the truthfulness and completeness of the information I provided and finally (crucially) my credit card details for payment.

'Wait thirty seconds and don't leave this screen' I was instructed. I did (wait) and I didn't (leave the screen). So what happened then? A message appeared asking me to ask my browser to allow cookies. My purchase couldn't proceed otherwise. And as it turns out it couldn't proceed either. That is, allowing the cookies wiped everything I had done to that point anyway and I had to go back to the beginning.

Couldn't the site have warned at the outset, 'allow cookies'? Why wait to the very last step?

Cookies are bad for you; whether you have them, or not.

2 comments:

  1. You don't normally allow cookies?

    I have a credit card for which the annual fee is waived, probably because of the tens of thousands of dollars in interest I have paid over many years. The credit card gives me travel insurance and I have taken a good look at the policy and it seems ok.

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    Replies
    1. Andrew, I do allow cookies but the site still instructed me to allow them before proceeding.

      I pay my credit card off in full and have rarely paid any interest on it so I am slugged a hefty annual fee instead.

      My card also provides travel insurance provided I pay for the trip substantially with the card. I had intended to do that this time but when the due date for payment arrived, without thinking, I made an online transfer of funds so the option was lost this time around.

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