Thursday, July 17, 2008

That was easy...a little too easy.

I stopped working at the Toymakers: now that I've passed on musketry, the additional hours will pay about the same that I made there. And I'm hoping to have other opportunities to work for CW, so I feel pretty good about leaving.

Just to give myself a reality check though, I went to my banks' websites (banks=plural) and took a look at my account balances. I was surprised to see a $6 monthly fee for my Chase account...the account I created when I was making $500 a week that required steady direct deposits, or else it would start charging me money to, I don't know, be there. There are no Chase banks in the area, so I haven't been using that money--I'd rather have it sit there in case of emergency, but $6 every month is a little too much. All my funds would have disappeared by the time there was a true emergency. So I decided to call Chase and see if there was anyway I could close the account down over the phone. I hunkered down with a margarita and a looong book (I've dealt with financial institutions via phone before) and prepared to do battle. To my surprise, not only was I able to close the account over the phone, but the entire conversation only took thirteen minutes. And the people were very helpful, just like the people in their brick and mortar stores. So that's a relief. The checks are in the mail, as they say...I'll probably buy a CD with the money and try not to think about it.

But a small part of me can't help but think that closing a bank account shouldn't be this easy. There are some things you want to be able to do in person. Granted, since the nearest Chase bank is about an hour away, this is a good option for me, but I'm glad that it was actually me closing the account and not some me-imposter.

Tonight I am very tired. I had a long day at work--lots of different things going on. CW is a major contributor to United Way, which is an organisation that gives money to lots of different charities. Today was a kickoff lunch, where you could come meet the organisations, get free t-shirts, sign up for door prizes and also free lunch. I won a "Country Cookbook" with lots of helpful receipies (like corndogs!) but I also had beef tacos so now my tummy is angry. It was nice to get out of the CDC though, and I got to meet some new people. I pledged $2 out of every paycheck for United Way, figuring I can afford that. It's only $52 a year, painless really. And the organisations that were there were all so cool and interesting. Although the ones about fostering kids and adoption poked me right in the biological clock...huh, must be nearing that time of the month. Or maybe I'm just getting anxious for some baby pictures...

3 comments:

Laura said...

Oh man do financial institutions make things difficult for me to do over the phone, but not only that, they never have significant appreciation of the fact that I am calling from ROMANIA. Yes, I gave you the address of my credit card bill. No there's no zip code. I'm sorry -there's no zip code what do you want me to do about it? I'm glad you got good customer service. I actually had a woman - who has no idea why I'm here say to me "Well, it's your choice to live in Romania so if the mail is unreliable it's not our fault you don't receive a credit card statement." Unbelievable. Lucky for her I'm not the ambassador or something. Arg. Money and communication technology. Two things guaranteed to get me upset if I think about them too long.

Anonymous said...

Musketry huh? That sounds like fun. I'm glad your enjoying the new jobs and I can't wait to hear about the writing job thing.

Oh yeah, its organiZation thank you very much.

Nicki said...

Thanks bro! I hope the writing thingy comes through too.

BTW it's "I'm glad YOU'RE enjoying the new jobs..." You-are, geddit? cheers. :)