Have you ever had a flat tire because you forget to look at your tire pressure? I have, more than once, but not since I installed these handy little valve caps with the “green is good to go” visual signal. And they only cost about $6 per set.
Not only do they save you from the hassle and cost of a flat tire, they could save hundreds of dollars over the car’s life with better fuel economy running on properly inflated tires. And flat tires on the freeway are a serious safety issue.
This begs the question: Why don’t car companies install these on all cars (note 1)? Is it really worth the potential thousand-dollar cost to your customers to save a buck or two in the manufacturing process?
Relevance for Netbankers: What things does your financial institution do to save a few pennies that could end up costing your customers similar financial pain? Here are my three pet peeves:
- No access to credit score: In a perfect analogy to the tire pressure gauge above, show a green/yellow/red indicator within online banking to demonstrate the health of my credit; it could be bundled with a special checking account and positioned as a premium service.
- Remove my data after six months: My primary bank still only posts six months of transaction data online. That might have made sense when it cost a $1+ to store 7 years of records online. But in an era when you can buy a 1 TB drives for less than $100 at retail, there’s no excuse for this continued practice.
- Refuse to use text messages: If my bank account is rapidly approaching zero, or someone in the Bronx is trying to buy $600 worth of video games with my credit card, drop me a text message, please.
Rant over. Have a great weekend.
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Note: Yes, I know that higher-end cars have tire-pressure idiot lights. And I’m sure there engineering-related costs and liability issues makes the price tag bigger than an outsider would imagine.