Are banks any use at all ?

This problem's partly of my own making but it's had me ranting anyway :-)

Monday night. I'm paying off the credit cards as I do every month. The first one goes through fine, I pay from the bank via a Maestro card as usual (fancy newer name for Switch). Then I go to my other card, which I only use online because I can't find its PIN. Cos of the Eve account hack a couple of weeks ago, I have new passwords ...

You can probably guess the start of the problem.

Yep - I'm currently locked out of the online banking that looks after one of my credit cards (I think it was a glitch in the security question). That should be a case of "not a problem - I'll just ring them up".

Nope. Nice try but not with Halifax ... They only accept payments over the phone from a couple of banks, neither of which I have an account with. Again, should be a case of "no problem, I'll send the money from my bank's online page".

Nope. My bank changed things a little while ago (unknown time because I never saw any warnings with this) so that to create a new payee online, you need a Widget to put a card in. And it takes 15 days for the Widget to be posted. Oh yeah, this is a bank that has the slogan "Helpful Banking".

So, what's the way forward to make sure I don't get a debt collection agency ringing up to chase me for about £70 ?

1 - I get back into Halifax's online thing. I'm hoping Royal Mail will exceed recent performance and get a letter through tomorrow that'll let me do just that. Problem solved.
2 - Wait for Helpful Banking to send me the authenticator widget. Not an option cos debt collection will poke me first.
3 - Use Helpful Banking's telephone service. Good option but I don't trust the person on the other end of the phone to accurately read in 34 numbers and that's just the ones to set up the Halifax payment.
4 - Back up plan. I like this one cos although it means I expend a couple of hours of flexi credit, I get to wander around Bristol doing some window shopping.

That's another beef with Halifax. They used to have a branch within 5 minutes walking of where I live, with a cash machine. Gotta admit, I only went in there once to try and sort out the PIN on the card, with the result of being told to go away cos they couldn't deal with it in there. (Poss due to me coming in 5 minutes before closing ????). That branch has gone now, taking the cash machine with it. So the closest Halifax to me is in the centre of Bristol. Option 4 would have me sharing a little angst with the people in the branch in Bristol.

Arg.

I think I may be in a Firing state of mind. Amazon have lost my faith through the Watchmen saga, now it's the turn of Halifax. I have 2 credit cards, had 3 until recently with the 3rd being closed down through never being used. (Got grabbed by Credit Card Girl with Pretty Eyes when I had time on my hands)

This credit card thing has an upside though :-)

I don't use my house phone much. I had one of those Very strange coincidences though on Monday ... The lockout meant I went to ring up Halifax. So I pick up the phone, think "why battery dead ?" Then I think : "this phone is kinda warm". Before realising it was actually quite hot, with the melty sensation coming from behind the thick plastic cover of the battery compartment.

There's a pair of AAA rechargeables in my house phone that I suspect were close to doing a Mt Vesuvius.

So - lockout of credit card leads to saving money on not needing to replace the house phone :-) (which incidentally lives beside my surround sound amp) I have a feeling I'll be buying stuff on Friday though, so maybe not that much cash saved !

PS I suspect I'm not actually under that much time pressure, the payment I made almost 3 weeks ago may cover me.