Banks and Batteries
I’m a bit cranky with Commerce Bank at the moment. This is the second time that I’ve been told that I’d get overdraft protection, only to find out that I didn’t. The problem is that they have no service remotely resembling a simple pull-it-from-your-savings-account, like what would make sense. No, what they’ll do is issue you a line of credit that you can use, and get billed for at the end of the month. I was never entirely clear if that was actually connected with your checking account, or if you actually had a different card you had to use for that, but it’s irrelevant at this point anyway.
My problem is that they won’t even give me that much of a line of credit, as my rating is still aching and cowering in fear after my ex used and abused and stomped the shit out of it long ago. So despite telling me (twice) that all I had to do was fill out this form and that it would be taken care of, I got hit with two more overdraft charges a week and a half ago.
And it really is as simple as pulling it from my savings account, which had plenty in it.
So last week I went in and talked to the manager, who tried to appease me by giving me back one of the fines. But it was too late for that. She wouldn’t give me back both of them, she couldn’t give me the line of credit (which for whatever reason has to be approved by some third party, despite the fact that it’s Commerce Bank itself issuing the line of credit - the minimum line of credit that they could justify giving me was whatever amount is in my savings account at the time), and she wouldn’t fix the issue that the Juggling Club had earlier in the year.
What? Yeah, that took her by surprise too. So I explained it to her, and she explained the deal to me (again - the account was dormant; since we weren’t using the money, they started taking it away, at the rate of $5 per month), but that didn’t excuse it, and she still wouldn’t fix it. So I closed the accounts. I’ve still got a checking account there (for the moment; it’ll take some time to set up the new account, to get things transferred to the new account, and for checks to clear), but my savings account and the Club account are both gone.
I’ve heard some bad things about USBank (some from rayana), but only good things (thus far) about Capital Federal, so I’ve now got accounts set up there. We’ll see how that turns out.
Other recent Bad Shit, as Lindsay and I were leaving St. Louis Sunday afternoon headed back here (see next post, coming soon), my car wouldn’t start. I tried getting a jump start, but to no avail. So we head back to the convention and see if we can find anyone there who has a clue and appropriate tools, but to no avail. There were plenty of people who were perfectly capable of telling us that my starter and/or the solenoid were bad, but nobody capable of doing a bloody thing about it.
So eventually we take advantage of becka_kitty (not like that, that was earlier in the weekend), who was sharing our hotel room and who has AAA. So we get the tow truck out there, tell him what was happening, and he said that no, it’s fine, it really does just need a jump. So after a bit more fooling around, we do finally get it started.
We head out, and between one bathroom stop en route, and an hour and a half stopover in Lenexa, dropping Lindsay off and eating dinner, no further problems. Monday when I try to go to campus, however, it refuses to start again. So I hike over to the garage I usually go to, tell them what’s been happening and get a confirmation of, “Yep, that’s the battery.”
So I bring the battery back and put it in. Another minor problem: the lead to the positive terminal was so thoroughly corroded that rather than unscrewing, it broke. Not completely, I put it back on the terminal and was able to start the car up fine, but that’s obviously not something I want to remain like that. So I head back to the garage, tell them what happened, and get the lead replaced.
Bloody hell. And I’m heading to HullabalU this weekend, for more fun and opportunities for shit to go wrong. Stay tuned.
My problem is that they won’t even give me that much of a line of credit, as my rating is still aching and cowering in fear after my ex used and abused and stomped the shit out of it long ago. So despite telling me (twice) that all I had to do was fill out this form and that it would be taken care of, I got hit with two more overdraft charges a week and a half ago.
And it really is as simple as pulling it from my savings account, which had plenty in it.
So last week I went in and talked to the manager, who tried to appease me by giving me back one of the fines. But it was too late for that. She wouldn’t give me back both of them, she couldn’t give me the line of credit (which for whatever reason has to be approved by some third party, despite the fact that it’s Commerce Bank itself issuing the line of credit - the minimum line of credit that they could justify giving me was whatever amount is in my savings account at the time), and she wouldn’t fix the issue that the Juggling Club had earlier in the year.
What? Yeah, that took her by surprise too. So I explained it to her, and she explained the deal to me (again - the account was dormant; since we weren’t using the money, they started taking it away, at the rate of $5 per month), but that didn’t excuse it, and she still wouldn’t fix it. So I closed the accounts. I’ve still got a checking account there (for the moment; it’ll take some time to set up the new account, to get things transferred to the new account, and for checks to clear), but my savings account and the Club account are both gone.
I’ve heard some bad things about USBank (some from rayana), but only good things (thus far) about Capital Federal, so I’ve now got accounts set up there. We’ll see how that turns out.
Other recent Bad Shit, as Lindsay and I were leaving St. Louis Sunday afternoon headed back here (see next post, coming soon), my car wouldn’t start. I tried getting a jump start, but to no avail. So we head back to the convention and see if we can find anyone there who has a clue and appropriate tools, but to no avail. There were plenty of people who were perfectly capable of telling us that my starter and/or the solenoid were bad, but nobody capable of doing a bloody thing about it.
So eventually we take advantage of becka_kitty (not like that, that was earlier in the weekend), who was sharing our hotel room and who has AAA. So we get the tow truck out there, tell him what was happening, and he said that no, it’s fine, it really does just need a jump. So after a bit more fooling around, we do finally get it started.
We head out, and between one bathroom stop en route, and an hour and a half stopover in Lenexa, dropping Lindsay off and eating dinner, no further problems. Monday when I try to go to campus, however, it refuses to start again. So I hike over to the garage I usually go to, tell them what’s been happening and get a confirmation of, “Yep, that’s the battery.”
So I bring the battery back and put it in. Another minor problem: the lead to the positive terminal was so thoroughly corroded that rather than unscrewing, it broke. Not completely, I put it back on the terminal and was able to start the car up fine, but that’s obviously not something I want to remain like that. So I head back to the garage, tell them what happened, and get the lead replaced.
Bloody hell. And I’m heading to HullabalU this weekend, for more fun and opportunities for shit to go wrong. Stay tuned.