Tuesday 2 August 2016

Well That Sucked

Okay, so you all know that I had been using my Mid-Term Savings Account as my personal Credit Card. I had also used it to spend out of when I was on my vacation.

I did this because I didn’t want to affect the budgeting of my Main Account. After my vacation I decided to spend out of this account when I wanted to nudge things along or otherwise cheat a bit on my budget. 

This was because I wanted to show myself how my spending was directly stealing money from my savings account. Well, this is where things get interesting when I looked at my account this weekend.

I do this on a regular basis to not only ensure that my regular payments when through okay, but also to see if there was any funny or fraudulent transactions which went through.

Well, there was a chunk taken out of my Mid-Term Savings account to the tune of $96.00! I thought that this was a fraud of some sort, and in a way it was.

My bank charges me $2.00 for every withdrawal but they give me one free one per month (how generous). That means I was dinged $2.00 each time I spent out of that account. 

As a “Hail Mary/Long Shot” I called my bank to see if anything could be done about this. Again, my expectations were very low because this is a bank we are dealing with.

The customer service rep explained the debit dinging thing that I just told you and that due to the nature of this account that I couldn’t add a package to cover withdrawals from this account.

They were nice enough to put $75.00 back into the account, as they did have a bit of discretion with regards to what they could do.

This goes to show never take your anger and frustration on the customer service representative that you are dealing with. 

They are not the problem and don’t deserve to be yelled at or otherwise put up with your bad attitude.  If you get a snarky or inept customer service rep, hang up and try again. 

There are times when you are dealing with what I term as “hubots” and in such a case, you are pretty much hooped. 

These people are given such stringent and rigid limitations as to what they can say or do, that they are practically robots. (Again, not their fault.) 

This is the company’s way of keeping strict control over the interaction with their customers, and to actively encourage you to just shut up and go away. 

So, as a result of this debit dinging thing, I will go back to charging up my budget cheating on Card #2. I will pay it back down to zero each and every payday, thereby not paying any interest at all.

I was asked about what happened with regards to the business that offered to let me stay there. I thought it over and I haven’t talked to them at all and most likely won’t. 

This may seem silly, particularly when winter is coming and a steady plugin does sound nice and all, but I have a few reasons for declining their offer. 

 For one, I like the thought and feeling of being mobile, of being home wherever I go. I can drive where I want, when I want and always have my home and everything I own with me. I am truly a Nomad and I like that.

For another, I don’t like feeling responsible for the security of that or any business. I know me and if I were to stay there I would feel bad if there was a break in while I was sleeping there and I had nothing useful to report the next morning.

Finally, I don’t like the thought of being that much on display, the hermit in the corner of the lot, so to speak. Imagine if everyone who worked there saw me coming, going and milling about their large lot.

 Sure, I am somewhat on display now, as most of the people in the area know who I am or see me parking in my regular places. That is not the same; I am on a public street and nobody’s guest.

I will manage, and I will make it through another winter and on towards total debt freedom. I will do so on my own terms, beholden to nobody. As Frank said, when it is all said and done I can say . . . “I did it myyyyy way!”

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

2 comments:

  1. Understood. Sounded good on the surface, but you brought up some downsides I hadn't thought of. Thanks for the response.

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  2. @harley9967 Thanks for feeding back and asking a question. I always welcome them. For the longer answers, I will include them in the next blog. For the shorter answers I will endeavor to answer them here, and quickly.

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