Monday, June 21, 2010

Still Don't Get It

I made myself a nice lunch today but didn't get a chance to eat it. It was the boss's birthday and everyone decided to go to lunch. I was hoping they would order in pizza but no, they picked a nearby place where the food is mediocre. Actually, the last time we went (and first time I had ever been) my meal caused me many hours of discomfort and more time than I wanted to spend in the bathroom. I was willing to give them a second chance. My chicken sandwich was terrible but the french fries were good. That's $12 that I hadn't planned to spend but I did for the sake of office bonding.

When I got back to the office I got a call from Chase who is my bank. The representative wanted to know when I wanted to come in to choose whether I wanted overdraft protection on my debit card and checking accounts. They have sent numerous letters and I thought that the letters said that if I wanted to decline then I should do nothing. I never use my debit card and I rarely write checks so I didn't see the importance of overdraft protection. I also couldn't figure out if there were fees or not. I told the lady that I wanted to opt out and she said I could do that over the phone but she would have to call the telephone banker. She connected us in a 3 way call and then the telephone banker and the banker lady from my bank proceeded to argue over why the banker at my bank couldn't fix my account for me.

Finally the telephone banker gave in and agreed to set my opt-out status. I have no clue what they were talking about but they started to argue again. It was really weird and I wanted to hang up but I thought that I didn't want them calling me again. Finally they set up my preferences and hung up. I still have no idea if the overdraft protection that I opted out of was something that costs extra or not. I think, from listening to the bankers argue, that my checking accounts are still protected by my credit card. I sure hope I never need overdraft protection. And I hope I never have a problem with my Chase accounts. I don't want to listen to them argue again.

2 comments:

Dave said...

Oh man, Daizy, you had yourself quite a day there.

I never liked any of those group lunches in all the years I worked, especially after my company moved from lower Manhattan (where there were at least good places to eat) to New Jersey (where the few more upscale eateries were lousy).

One good thing about working part-time from 2001-2008 while in NJ was my being able to miss most of them. Often, my boss(es) would try to schedule a lunch on the one of the few days I was there. But trying to schedule a group lunch for 25 people on a day we were all in the office was tough, and if they had it on a day everyone else was in the office but me, I felt that was a victory of sorts LOL! And I just about never went to any of those group lunches for others unless I absolutely had to go.

I hated those group lunches so much I even rejected one for ME on MY last day of work. Instead, I went out to lunch with my one trusted friend/coworker like we often did (his treat). And the money the rest of the gang would have spent on a lunch they gave to me in cash (about $160) so that was a nice parting gift.

Now to that goofy bank incident on the phone. Too bad you could not have grabbed some popcorn as those two bank reps argued with each other. Really funny stuff (to me, but I can see why it wasn't funny to you).

As long as you are sure you have some kind of safety net in case you bounce a check or overdraw on your checking account, that is okay. I have had overdraft protection since the mid-1980s back in the days when I had a separate savings account from the checking account which sometimes fell below zero. I would have preferred to just have the savings account automatically linked to cover any overdraft but that was not available at the time. (I could manually transfer funds between the linked accounts, though.) Instead, it went into a credit line and I paid a dollar or two in interest which was a heckuva lot better than a $20 (at the time) bounced check fee. Just letting the credit line (or in your case, a credit card) sit idly by should not cost you anything if it remains unsed.

Daizy said...

Dave, how lucky that you were able to get out of those group bonding lunches. I can't imagine trying to coordinate 25 people for lunch. I guess you had longer than 45 minutes. They were certainly good sports to give you their lunch money as a parting gift. I can't imagine my coworkers doing that.