Sunday, November 04, 2007

I hate my bank

Why are they so unorganized? You would think coming recommended by University and having a branch right down the street from University would make things easy, but no. When I signed up, they asked if I wanted to have a "themed" debit card. I had a choice of about 50 cards with images of trees or kitties or sports teams on them. Frankly, they were all ugly. I said no thanks and they said fine, here's the standard. Standard arrived in the mail and, after some textbook buying drama, was used for a month and worked fine. Then, they send me another card. What?! And not just a standard card, a sports themed one. I tried calling to find out why the hell I have two debit cards and got all tangled up in "If you have a customer service question, press 1. If you want to sign up for one of our special-but-it's-a-rip-off programs, press 2. If you want more options, press 3. If you think my voice is creepy, press 4. If you want to change your theme from ugly sports team to ugly dinosaurs press 5. If you don't give a shit about card themes and just want to know why the hell your bank is incompetent, press go to hell. Please hold."

So I hung up and threw the card in a drawer. I know, not the best choice but I'm new at this. Everything was fine for another month because I didn't use my card, I had too much cash left over from the summer and that covered my meager student expenses. Well, floormate and I go to BadBank's ATM down the street (because it is just a little bit closer than the branch of BadBank). And the card. doesn't. work. What?! Fine, go back to University and try to log-in to online banking using normal card to be told no by the website. Fine, rip that damn ugly sports team card out of the drawer. Try to log on again using ugly card number. Works, account is happy and fine. Call the number on ugly card to activate. Activated, put normal card into drawer and ugly card into wallet. Too late to go back to ATM (kinda sketch area at night).

You would think the debit card drama would be over. But no, I got my bank statement in the mail today. Even though their website keeps bragging to me that I am "going paperless." So why I still receive two statements a month probably has to do with whatever they did that caused above drama. One statement is normal and fine, exactly what it says online. Phew. Second statement, not so much. I signed up for some program that sounded very nice when I started, it is basically to help you save money. They transfer the extra change from your checking account to your savings account. You only make about $1.81 a month but whatever. Well, this statement has that $1.81 added and then says -$20.00 maintenance fee. Again, What?! Why would I be in a program where I am paying $20.00 a month for "maintenance" while only making $1.81?! So today, I am going to schlepp down to BadBank branch and find out what the hell is going on with this account.