Fun at Their Expense

One of my favorite personal expressions has always been, "You can mess with me any way til Tuesday but you mess with my money, you've messed with the wrong damn thing." 

It's served me well - working freelance in the film industry sometimes for four different companies in a week. I sometimes feel like I fight hard for every dollar I get. And my money isn't just sitting there to be stolen by banks. 

So, I had a mishap this month - brain fart. I paid one bill and forgot to move money from savings to checking to cover it. What followed makes me nostalgic for the way banks used to be. Back in the dark ages, if you had money in one account but not another, the computers at the bank made a little transfer and all was well. This didn't cost the bank any money nor did it cost the customer. 

But now, all banks have gone money mad. And starting in February, every bank around these parts no longer offers free checking. Let me get this straight: you want to keep my money, require exorbitant minimum balances on money I cannot use, not pay me interest AND charge me for the pleasure. Uh NO! I will be analyzing the different banks on my Retail Rant blog  later in the month, so if you are shopping too... you might want to check in there.

But back to my fiasco. I was charged $10 bucks for them to move $300 from some credit card I didn't even know I had (when I had the funds available in THREE other accounts!) This kind of crap INFURIATES ME! I feel like we, as consumers are being 4.99'd to death. Every website you visit wants a subscription fee, our phones, cable, etc. keep going up up up UP!

So I decided there was little chance to see my ten bucks but I was going to cost Chase $15. I figured a that these phone folks - never Americans - probably make five bucks an hour and since I have more time than money, I would play a little game. I decided that while I did some computer work, I would call them up, put them on speaker and ask them to explain to me why they charged me and that if I kept someone online for two hours, I would have my "money's worth!" Bonus points for getting a supervisor and asking for / getting their supervisor because that ups their financial ante! 

I openly tell them what I'm doing! That's half the fun! "You cost me money, now you have to be nice to me for two hours while I cost you money." Whaddaya know? The 2nd person I talked to gave me my ten bucks back! HA! 

And since Chase is one of the banks that will be charging about 120 bucks a year PER account for my business, they won't be my bank much longer. 

I didn't even have to work that hard for my money and I'm laughing all the way to the bank hole in the backyard. Never mind. I'm going to lunch.