I hate my bank right now. I think that they think I am a kid who doesnt watch her money. On the contrary, I am very careful with my money. I've never bounced a check, I've never been overdrafted, and I dont even own a credit card. The money I spend is money I actually have. So why do I hate my bank?

They held a bunch of my transactions. Well, probably not them, but the merchants to whom I paid money to for various things, like clothes, food, etc. And, all of a sudden, all of these transactions come through at once. I have enough money in my account, according to my bank statements, but apparently they have such a thing as "actual balance" and "available balance" (which up til this past Sunday there was only a $10 difference, which isnt bad). So when all of these transactions went through yesterday, because my "available balance" was less than what they were all worth, they charged me a $25 overdraft fee. Then, when the next transaction came through, because of the first $25 fee, I was under my limit, and they charged me ANOTHER $25 fee. If it wasnt for the first fee in the first place, I wouldnt have been under AT ALL! Damn domino effect. Luckily my Amtrak purchase hadnt gone through, or that would have been yet another $25 fee.

So, I'm thinking maybe I made a mistake (but honestly, I dont think so, I dont make mistakes adding and subtracting my money... call me anal). So I get very flustered at the bank and start crying and have to leave. I went over to Tops to see Andy for some confort, and he bought me some pizza for lunch to calm me down. One of his coworkers, Tori, even came over and gave me a hug! She is so sweet. So Andy calms me down and says when we both get home this afternoon, we will go through it and talk to the bank.

So we did. The customer service person was very nice and all, but the bottomline came down to "thats the way the bank does it" crap. And she also told me that since I didnt have a ledger, they really couldnt do a damn thing for me. ARGH! I was upset again, but had to get to class, so it had to be put off for awhile.

When I got home from class, Andy and I ate dinner (yummy ham! he did a GREAT job!!). Then I was a mad woman. I tore around the house looking for any receipts I could find. I found 30 out of 32 receipts, but I know my mother has one, and the other is from Tops, probably in a bag in the "Bag Bag". But I thought that only missing 2 receipts was great! (I save everything. I am a packrat. Especially when it comes to credit and debit purchases). So I went through them all, used Microsoft Excel, and made a spreadsheet of all of my transactions for the past month and a half. I got all of my receipts in the order of the actual transaction date (cause thats how you'd write them in a check or ledger book), and organzed the spreadsheet to reflect this. I am VERY happy with myself.

So this morning, I called them bank, and nonchalantly asked for my balance on Dec 23 (thats how far back I had my spreadsheet go). But, there was no activity on my account on the 23rd. So, the nice bank lady gave me my balance on both Dec 21, and Dec 26, and said those were the balances that would be in my ledger and reflected ALL transactions.

So, what does smart me do? First I wrote it all out, starting with those balances, and adding or subtracting all of my transactions since then, just to make sure it added up... Well, guess what?? As of yesterday, February 4, I am all good! So, I made out a ledger from the book they gave me yesterday, and it reflects everything!!

They will probably give me some BS about how that isnt my "available" balance, and how the transactions dont go through on the day they were made, blah blah blah. But, I treat this like a checkbook. If it says I have enough money, I make the purchase. If I dont, I dont. You see what I am saying? I cant tell when the transactions actually go through! I just know that I write it down, and then that money is no longer available to me. Screw the bank.

I dont think I want to deal with the bank today, so I will probably take care of this tomorrow. I want to get straight in my head what I would like to say, and maybe Andy will come with me. Maybe then they wont think I am a dumb (almost 24 year old) kid who cant keep her money straight. Little do they know that my concentration for my education degree is in math, and I got a B+ in my Mathematics of Finance class. I'll show them!!!

then || now