Instant banking?

[vanillafluffy]

I've managed to overdraw my checking account, thanks to an online payment that somehow took several days to be debited. How is that possible, in this day of electronic banking? I looked at my balance Monday, didn't check the actual transactions, mea culpa, because I thought, gee, I paid them last week OF COURSE it's been deducted by now. *mumblemumblemumble*

Naturally, that means they're going to hit me with a $28 service charge (but thank God for overdraft protection!) for being overdrawn, and after three or five days (I forget which, this rarely happens to me!), they tack on $5 a day for having a negative balance.

I'm not to pleased by the state of affairs, but hey, I own it. It still isn't as bad as the time Wal*Mart took almost a month to deposit one of my checks...that was a REAL clusterfuck. I bounced several checks, and got hit with all the fees TWICE, because everyone tried to redeposit them. I ended up so far in hock that even after my next paycheck was direct deposited, I was still $50 in the hole. I was living on fried egg sandwiches for a month.

Meanwhile, I'm writing again. I haven't been able to crank my brain enough to get the John-Nancy 'verse going, but I'm working on the sequel to "Son of a Bitch", where Dean meets his illegitimate kid. (Basically, I'm putting season two through a blender. It kind of references people who appear, but it isn't going to spoil anything.) And oh goody, I've finally figured out a way to do Wincest that doesn't squick me!

Now I need to get ready for work, alas. It's a shame, because I'm inspired. It's always something!

Comments

[elbly.livejournal.com]

How is that possible, in this day of electronic banking?

Because in this day of electronic banking, the banks still need to make money, and two of the easiest ways to do this is to:
1) hold onto your money for a couple of days while they "process it" so that any pennies of interest in those 2-5 days are theirs, not yours (and boy do those pennies add up)
2) charge disgustingly large fees to their customers for reasons that are often the banks fault in the first place (see point 1).

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

charge disgustingly large fees to their customers for reasons that are often the banks fault in the first place

In the case of my bank, which I have found to be quite satisfactory in all other respects, they will put through the largest check(s) first, and bounce all the little ones, so as to collect the bounce fee the max number of times. Annoying, but I try very hard not to put myself in this position. This is the first check I've bounced in more than a year---despite being out of work for exactly six months of that time---so I'm not too upset.

[elbly.livejournal.com]

This is the first check I've bounced in more than a year

Bravo! I'm very VERY impressed. Money stresses me out (thanks Mum & Dad for your amazing ability to make me so insecure and pathetic about money) so just the idea of a cheque bouncing sends me spriralling into a world of depression.

It took me about 5 years to get out of a very VERY small money hole... don't wanna be going back there!

But even so - banks are b*st*rds. Something that's VERY popular here in the UK at the moment is claiming back your bank fees if you believe your bank's cheeted you... the banks are going mad and threatening all sorts of things because they're being robbed of one of their main sources of profit: robbing us blind while telling us it's all our fault.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

I'm still paying people back who lent me money while I was out of work last year. I will owe the student loansharks money for the next couple of lifetimes. My car is old enough to vote.

But---! I'm employed. I like my job, for the most part. Dental woes aside, I'm healthy, which is more than I can say for some of my friends. Things could be a lot worse (and have been!), so other than the occasional hormonal flare-up, I can usually regard my circumstances with equanimity.

[teresa-c.livejournal.com]

Gee, sorry to hear this. But here's a cheerer-upper: Check out my friend erinrua's list of the Winchester weapons!

here

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

*admires* That's really quite a juicy little site she has there! Thanks for sharing! I will pimp it forth!

[socialhermit.livejournal.com]

I've had the same thing happen with my online banking. My bank claims they need 5 business days to "process" the payment. They ALSO claim you can cancel an online payment within 4 business days of setting it up. However, let's say on May 1st, you arrange to pay a $50.00 phone bill that's due on May 5th, right? The payment doesn't actually GO anywhere til May 5th, but on May 3rd the funds are now "in the process of being processed" and that payment can no longer be cancelled. WTF? What happened to 4 business days?!?

Also, I couldn't figure out why my city utility payment was always arriving late, when I was setting up the payment WELL in advance of the due date. Imagine my surprise when I finally realized my bank was sending the city a PAPER CHECK each month! Um, hello? Since when is a paper check part of an electronic transaction? Turns out my bank doesn't have a 'contract' with the city for electronic payments. ((eye roll)) Now I just write my own check for that payment and mail it to the city - on time - myself.

Sheesh...

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

What is it with these small towns and their archaic proceedures? Our water department claims "Pay by phone!" on their statement---what that translates to is NOT "Push buttons for two minutes and it's done", no, of course not!---it means, "Call during business hours and we'll take your credit card info." And *forget* paying online. The time I *thought* I'd taken care of business that way, they never deducted it, and I got a Pay-or-Die notice a couple weeks later (plus late charges---sweet).