Life Muses by Ro

Best of Reader's Comments: Put it down

Ahh... the wisdom of my blog's readers. I don't know if you take the time to follow the replies to the posts, but if you do, you will know that sometimes, I am given some great advice. I thought it might be nice to spotlight some of these cool things every once in a while so I have just created a new category to file them under, "Best of Reader's Comments."

Here's the first edition!

You might remember that I recently apologized for letting you down when I complained about my bank. I received so much loving support, that I felt all wrapped up in a warm blanket. It was amazing. (Thank you SO much!)

In the middle of all of these kind words, I found a wise story, told by SheilaJ.


Parting in the Stream by Ducatitrider

Put It Down

Many years ago in Tibet two monks were on their travels. One was old and had been a monk for many years, the other was his apprentice. They belonged to a strict order that forbade any contact with women, even looking at them.

They came to a fast flowing stream on the outskirts of a small village. Stood by the side of it shivering in the cold was a beautiful young girl. The apprentice averted his gaze, girded up his cloak and waded into the stream. The old monk approached the girl and said "Daughter you look cold and alone. Can I help?"

The girl explained that she was going home to her family but was afraid to cross the stream.

The monk scooped her up and wrapped her in his own cloak warming her with his body heat. He waded across the stream to the village and set the girl down, blessed her and strode away followed by the apprentice.

Miles later the monk said to the apprentice "Is something wrong? You haven't spoken since the stream."

The apprentice said "Master we are forbidden to so much as think of women, yet you spoke to that beautiful young girl, carried her close to your body, actually sharing its heat with her. Isn't this a great sin?"

"Indeed it is my son, but my sin is not so great as yours!"

"My sin master?"

"Yes. Unlike you, I put her down at the stream side."

---------

Sheila finished her comment post by saying this, "Put it down Ro, put it down!"

You are so right, Sheila. I'm trying to do exactly that!

Dessert War

Nobody comes between me and my key lime cheesecake.

Get your fork off my plate, buddy.

Are you prepared to die?

Gary and I are on the way to Salt Lake City to see our attorney. After all of these years we are going to set up a trust in case one or both of us die.

That sounds silly. Of course, we are going to die - someday. But if it happened right now, the kids would be hosed. The IRS would swoop right in and take almost everything away.

We should have done it years ago. We've been stalling and actually, we were irresponsible not to have it done. We have four children. What if we had died when they were little?

The reason we are doing a trust is because it is tons better for the people you leave behind. No questions. Tax problems are avoided. It is better for business owners. My parents did this for us because they didn't want is to go through some of the bad situations that occurred before in our family.

So let me ask you - are you prepard to die?

Think about it... Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

I have my money back: My business banker has restored my faith

Last night, as I felt so frustrated about the whole banking situation that I couldn't speak, it occurred to me to try to send my business banker an email. I tried to call him repeatedly but the girl that kept answering the telephone at the branch didn't let me talk to him or even leave him a message. This upset me a lot, but it had become a pattern over a number of months so I wasn't surprised. 

Last month, he called me and asked me why he hadn't heard from me. We usually talk a lot. I forgot about this protectionism during that phone call because I was so pleased that he had sought me out.

Anyway, my email got through to him (I have his card) and he immediately got on the phone and located my money. It's only 11:50 a.m. and he has found it already! Then he called me and apologized profusely.

Toby to the rescue!

He is going to have them credit the money to my mortgage and will make sure that the extra principle is handled correctly. He is also going to have the late fee deposited in my personal checking account today. My mortgage is now paid up through the May 1 payment.

He was very surprised the whole thing happened. For one thing, he says that the bank reconciles all of the accounts multiple times each month, but at the minimum, they should have discovered that they had received money for a closed account in January. If they had, the whole mess wouldn't have occurred.

He gave me both his cell phone numbers and his home phone number so that I will never have to feel hung out to dry again. Toby has been one of the reasons I have stayed at Chase over the years. He is one of the reasons I have held firm when my other bank attempts to talk me into moving Scrap Girls business accounts over there - which happened as recently as Friday. He has been proactive at looking at our accounts and finding ways for our business to run better and for us to make more money.

There have also been a couple of other individuals at that branch that have made me feel wonderful over the years. Two of them are named Denise and Mary Ann. A former branch manager (I forget her name) also helped me out in a big way a couple of times. There is another teller (I forget her name at the moment but she is short with brown hair) that has been awesome, too. I miss those people a lot. Losing them was one of the big regrets I had about moving to Highland.

Maybe this is one of the reasons that the whole thing was so discouraging to me. It was completely contrary to everything I had ever experienced with them since 2004. I couldn't understand why after all of these years, I was getting such crazy, inadequate, we-don't-care responses. It didn't make sense and felt sort of like having friends decide that they don't like you anymore.

But my friend is still there. My faith has been restored in Chase due to the wonderful customer service received today by Toby. I am so relieved that I could cry.

Customer service is what it is all about. Give the man a gold star.

(I'm sending Toby the link to this post, by the way. I want to see how much I appreciate what he has done for me today.)

Banking Update: Make sure you read how to avoid this situation

I will not mention the two banks names in this post because I don't want a fuss about me updating you. I hope that those individuals who were unhappy about me talking about it before will be tolerant of this post. It is not personal and does not reflect your personal experience with banks. I have never experienced anything like it before so I am a "banking" innocent myself.

I worked for a couple of banks early in my career and even was a trainer for one bank. Ironically, I was flown around to offices in five states for the express purpose of me teaching employees how to give great customer service. My background shows that I am not anti-bank. I hope, for all of our sakes, that they can get themselves straightened out.

But what I have learned a few minutes ago (via conference call with both banks) is so important that I need to pass the information along for your protection.

This is the attitude of both banks:

1. If you send them money, they figure you did it on purpose. It doesn't matter that the account doesn't exist or was closed years ago. They will keep the money until you let them know you shouldn't have sent it to them. They will never bounce it back to you unless you specifically ask for it back. (I will never understand this attitude. As a business woman, I would never do such a thing. It seems immoral to me.)

I hope this won't offend you, but it is how I honestly feel. Surely, I am not the first person to make this error in the history of banking.  I can not possibly be the only person that has made this particular mistake. It has to happen often.

Banks should have a process for dealing with money that is sent to a defunct credit card - or any account. There is a balance of zero on those accounts. They are closed. The obligation does not exist. They refuse to distribute money from accounts that don't exist and so they shouldn't accept it either.

2. Bank 1 has stated that they would never have contacted me until I was behind on my mortgage -or I asked for my money back. I would have received letters and phone calls telling me that I was late. My credit would have been dinged. (The representative said this so I am not exaggerating.)

I find this intolerable because they specifically refused to give me my money back on Friday when I alerted them so that "until you contact us" reasoning doesn't fly. It is not what they have actually done.

2. Bank 2 told me on the call that, frankly, this is how all big institutions do it. They keep your money. The banks have now lined up together, defending each other.  "This is just how it happens" does not make it right.

It is going to take at least a week for Bank 1 to research where the money actually is. They are not yet saying if they are going to send it back or credit it to my account. Keep in mind that I sent in extra principle both months. I am trying to pay my mortgage down so they received more than I was supposed to send them. I am worried that if they do credit the money to my mortgage, they won't do so correctly and I will have to deal with that as well.

Meanwhile - while they are researching - my March house payment will come due. I will have to come up with the money for this payment, which they already have received. Technically, they have now received three payments so I am paid up through May 1- if they can locate my money.

While they help me with that situation? No. I have to deal with it.

Lessons for us all:

• If you use online banking payments, delete all of your old, unused accounts of of your interface immediately so the possibility of making this error will not exist. Another option would be to change the name of the payee so that it ends with DO NOT USE.
  
• Make your payments via electronic payment because the fact that I did and because Bank 2 can prove that it happened, Bank 1 has no other option than to find the money and return it. Sometime. Who knows when? I hope it will be sooner rather than later.
• Even better: If you are using a bank that has a local office, haul yourself to the branch and make your payment in person. That is what I am going to do from now on.
• Watch your accounts closely - even your mortgage accounts. Most of them have an online website where you can track the receipts and the posting of the payments. I am going to track mine like a fiend now. I have tracked my checking and savings accounts like a nut and now I am going to add my mortgage to my list of accounts that I will constantly monitor.

Postscript:

I just logged into my web interface for Bank 1. It shows my checking account information. I made the payment that I made in person on Friday and it doesn't show that I paid it. There is also no  indication that I accidentally "re-opened" a defunct credit card account (which was closed at my request) or that I have sent them money at all.

Snap.

My money is floating around in some kind of slush fund where they keep people's money that made that mistake. (Bank 1 told me this on the phone call.)

Snap.

This situation cost me $110 in late fees for my February mortgage payment. I am out the money.

Snap. Snap. Snap