Online credit card activation not yet ready for prime time*

*Of course, you're talking TechnoDolt™ prime time here.

My new credit card has a sticker on the front that says "Please call from your home phone or go online to activate your card."

Well, now, I said to myself, I've got my brand spanking new iMac doing everything but making my bed, so activating online might finally be within my grasp.

Just think, I thought, no more 30 minutes on hold listening to a recorded message playing over and over telling me all the reasons I should buy credit card fraud insurance (even though by law your obligation's limited to $50 if you report it in a timely fashion).

I went to www.bankofamerica.com/activate to do it and ran head-on into the near game-ending gumption trap pictured above.

I'm not currently an Online Banking customer (believe it or not, I've never used an ATM — and never will, how's that for bizarre?) and preferred to activate my card without signing in per the option offered above, so I clicked "No."

Then I came to another page which asked for some information all of which I actually had in my head, instead of having to go and look it up.

Hey, I thought, this is cool.

Then I clicked to continue and got this:

Why was I not surprised?

I'd estimated my chances of success at 10% tops before I'd started so no big disappointment, more a confirmation that things like this are still pretty much out of reach for people like me.