if you haven’t read parts 1..3 of this posting, do so now. this is the last of the catch up bloggings in this series, titled “been a while”.

first, lets get the horrible bank story out of the way.

i almost forgot what a regular paycheck was like. in the months of unemployment, i spent every ounce of self control to ensure that we did not over spend. i had saved up a good chunk of change in the 6 months prior to the layoff (to pay off credit cards) and we needed to make sure not to spend it too quickly. needless to say, we burned through all but $600. i promise, this has a point.

right before we left san antonio, crystal and i wanted to open a banking account together; we wanted to share our finances like most all married couples do. one of our concerns was national availability of the bank/credit union. we thought compass bank sounded like a decent start. we spent 2 hours in compass opening an account in san antonio. since we had not found a residence in dallas yet, we had to use our current address.

after we had moved to our new apartment in mckinney, we went to the nearest compass bank in allen. after changing our address, we chose some checks (UT checks). after waiting for 2 weeks and still not receiving them in the mail, crystal called compass and inquired about the missing checks. apparently we had ordered checks that had been discontinued. thanks for the notice, compass.

now the good stuff. first, we started noticing that their online banking was rather lacking in design. pending debits made with the debit card were only made visible on the website after an hour and for only 24 hours, at which point they vanish until being completely processed.

this only made the real problem even worse. there were a few debit transactions that apparently had caused our funds to become insufficient. after the first transaction caused us our account to be $0.56 in the hole (on may 26th), all subsequent transactions were STILL approved. after 4 transactions, we were assessed $36 per transaction. also, there were about $6 per diem fees for a week. lastly, i took my paycheck to compass on friday the 27th. the teller informed me that it would be over a week for the money to post to my account and that i should take the check elsewhere (i do not recall if the suggested i cash it and bring it back, i was so appalled).

all of this was going on without compass notifying us about the problem with our account. the teller did not mention the account showed a negative balance on the 27th and we received no phone call or letter. it wasn’t until crystal called compass for a balance inquiry that we found out. initially, crystal called the national customer service number and they were unable to help or explain the problem.

i consider myself to be a pretty relaxed guy; doctors have noted that my body shows no signs of stress. but when you screw with my money or credit, i become a very irritated guy with patience as long as a 4 year old’s attention span. i first contacted the national customer service line on my lunch break. the woman i spoke to informed me that the account was $180 in the negative!! she offer some slight insight as to what went wrong, but offered no help in resolving the problem.

frustrated, i called crystal and told her to be ready to go to the bank when i got home. we arrived and waited for 20 minutes until we were able to speak to a representative. they claimed that they weren’t able to help but the customer service manager might. we waited for another 20 minutes and told her what the problem was. she agreed that we should’ve been notified but never were. after a heated argument, she finally agreed to refund us one insufficient funds fee. apart from that, she wasn’t able to assist us any further and recommended we speak to the branch manager to fix the rest of our problems. the branch manager wouldn’t be in to work until the following morning.

first thing in the morning, we were at the bank to speak with the manager. after an hour wait, we were finally able to speak to the manager. the manager wasn’t very responsive. after explaining that the entire problem existed because they neglected to contact us, she continued to insist there was no bank error made. she gave us the number of the regional manager. the regional manager contacted me at work on monday and refunded all but 1 remaining $36 fee.

on friday, i went to bank of america to deposit the printed check that L3 gave me. we went in on saturday to close the account for good and take out any money that remained. come to find out, L3 also paid me that paycheck via direct deposit to the compass banking account!! paid twice, now that’s a problem most people would love to have.

whew, what a long story.

ok so the job has been good thus far. it took a meager 12 days to receive my clearance. i’ve actually started coding, which has been long awaited. i also started riding in a vanpool that meets 2 miles from our house because the hour-long drive to work is too much to bear.

i’ll post later about birdie and why she’s like a feathered child.