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Some good news, for a change.
Aug. 29th, 2003 11:22 amI'm always worried about money.
The kind of worried where you carefully plan just when to mail your rent check so that your landlord can't get to the bank with it before your next payday.
The kind of worried where one utility or another is constantly in danger of shutoff for nonpayment.
The kind of worried, where, if I were any sort of decent, sensible, committed individual, I would give up going out to lunch every day and save the five bucks a day.
Anyway, the other day I went to get gas, and the attendant swiped my check card three times before coming out and demanding cash, because the card wasn't going through. I grumbled, but paid, and left.
Lo and behold, on Wednesday, I discovered that those three failed attempts were being listed as outstanding charges against my account.
I pretty much saw red at that point.
What with the second job and all, I was not able to make a physical trip to the bank to get a printout of the erroneous charges. So today I brought up my account online, figuring that the transactions would have posted by now and that I could print that out and take it to the gas station to have the charges removed.
Only . . . the charges are already gone.
What the fuck?
I call the bank, natch.
And discover the secret wonders of the banking industry and the workings of checkcards!
Apparently, the actual debit to the account has to be electronically confirmed by the merchant before becoming a real debit. Up to that point, it's merely a hold.
And, if the merchant doesn't confirm within five days . . . the hold just goes away.
As if it had never been.
And my money is back in my account! Where it belongs! WHOO-HOO!!!!
I am ridiculously thrilled. Because now I can pay my rent, much closer to on time!
So, you know. Not exactly winning the lottery here, but it's nice to have something positive happen in my life. There seem to be so many negatives lately.
The kind of worried where you carefully plan just when to mail your rent check so that your landlord can't get to the bank with it before your next payday.
The kind of worried where one utility or another is constantly in danger of shutoff for nonpayment.
The kind of worried, where, if I were any sort of decent, sensible, committed individual, I would give up going out to lunch every day and save the five bucks a day.
Anyway, the other day I went to get gas, and the attendant swiped my check card three times before coming out and demanding cash, because the card wasn't going through. I grumbled, but paid, and left.
Lo and behold, on Wednesday, I discovered that those three failed attempts were being listed as outstanding charges against my account.
I pretty much saw red at that point.
What with the second job and all, I was not able to make a physical trip to the bank to get a printout of the erroneous charges. So today I brought up my account online, figuring that the transactions would have posted by now and that I could print that out and take it to the gas station to have the charges removed.
Only . . . the charges are already gone.
What the fuck?
I call the bank, natch.
And discover the secret wonders of the banking industry and the workings of checkcards!
Apparently, the actual debit to the account has to be electronically confirmed by the merchant before becoming a real debit. Up to that point, it's merely a hold.
And, if the merchant doesn't confirm within five days . . . the hold just goes away.
As if it had never been.
And my money is back in my account! Where it belongs! WHOO-HOO!!!!
I am ridiculously thrilled. Because now I can pay my rent, much closer to on time!
So, you know. Not exactly winning the lottery here, but it's nice to have something positive happen in my life. There seem to be so many negatives lately.
