My mother is old now, and she is starting to show it. Today, she wrote a note to a store informing them that she was permitting me to use her credit card. She had done this on one other occasion not long ago. She is handicapped with arthritis and cannot get out to shop very easily. The cashier had to call her manager to come to approve it. Then the manager had to phone my mother to ask her if she had, indeed, permitted me to use her card and it was really her who had written the note of authorization. Mom confirmed this and they manager allowed the transaction to go through. The item purchased was under $10 so it seemed a lot of hassle for such a small item, but it is a matter of store policy, which I totally understand and respect.
The solution to this problem would be quite simple. All my mother would have to do is order an additional card for me as a family member. I don't know if she will bother to do this. Her attitude is "it's too much bother..." We have been having some conflict over these types of issues lately. Old ways die hard, and mom doesn't like the amount of change that has taken place in our society these past 10 years or so, since the computerization of many functions has taken over the world. My view on this is that computers have opened up a lot of new opportunities for people such as me who prefer to work from home. I can pay my bills, check my bank balance, view my bank transactions for the past several months at the click of a mouse. I find this marvelously freeing. If I am falling asleep and suddenly realize that I forgot to pay a bill or that I need to make sure my bank balance is adequate for a preauthorized payment that is due to come out the following day, I can get out of bed, turn on my computer, log onto my bank account and transfer funds from one bank account to another, and pay a bill immediately. I can even transfer funds from one bank to another using e-mail money transfers. I have long awaited this capability and was thrilled when e-mail money transfers became possible. Now I send money to the grandchildren for their birthdays and Christmas with no worries about having to mail cheques etc.
I have managed to convince mom to sign on to banking online, and that worked with my help for several months, but somehow the password got mixed up and despite the bank staff supposedly fixing that problem, it persists, so mom is still balancing her checkbook the old fashioned way. I abandaned that method many years ago. I never could keep my bank book 100% accurate. I always managed to forget to enter one or two cheques or withdrawals per month and threw my bookkeeping off. Now I use Microsoft Money and online banking.