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Tue 22 May, 2007 09:16 pm
I'm not impressed. There is a question down at the bottom of the rant about online transfers.....
I have had the worst financial times I've ever had in the last three months. I am working a job where they force me into vacations and won't pay for the time off (part time in public education). I canceled a credit card that was ripping me off, but now my safety net is gone. I keep over-drafting my bank account. Mostly because I lack foresight.
After I paid off the credit card, and checked to see what my minimum payment would be (the auto phone person said no payment due), the auto pay went through as I hadn't canceled it - doh! 200 bucks in the hole.
I went to school for a weekend and bought some lunches and coffees and spent way more on over-draft fees than food. I can't figure out why, if things are electronic, the charges aren't automatically listed on my electronic bank account page.
I had my dental insurance coming out of the canceled card, but I'd canceled the card after the date the payment should have been made. I asked them to bill my bank account automatically instead. Turns out they hadn't gotten this month's payment from the credit card and took out the 49 bucks just now. I still don't know why they hadn't gotten this month's payment already.
And, the mail took a couple days longer than usual and I got nailed with a late payment fee for another bill.
I will have lost 100 to 120 bucks in the last two months to stupidity. What am I going to do with myself? I know - I'll be getting over-draft protection.....
Now that you know the ugly truth, there is actually a question about banking. Both my credit card and checking account are with the same bank (bank of america). Is it generally possible to set up a transfer from my credit card to my checking account? It should be. But, I can't force my bank to allow the transfer that way - it wants to go only in the opposite direction (checking to credit). The computerized customer service center doesn't list this problem as an option to chat about and the online assistance hasn't responded.
I have two credit cards with BoA and a checking account. I can freely move money from any one of them to the other two.
Well, not freely. It's only free to move from checking to credit card. The other way around there are fees. Anywhere between $5 to hundreds of $$$ if you're transferring a few thousand dollars (which I had to do to pay continuing student fee). But yes, it's possible. You should be able to do that online yourself somehow, I remember doing it the first time, I think through logging to my credit card and then checking something. Next time, it showed up all in one page.
My accounts are linked on one page, I just can't make it go backwards. Any chance you'll be home soon?
the only time it wouldn't allow me to transfer from credit to checking was when i was trying to move too much. it can't be more than available credit, and some cards also have daily spending limits set on them. dunno, otherwise i never encountered any issue in the Make Transfers doodah.
Lesson # 1: Do not auto-pay anyone, ever! You decide when and how much should be paid to institutions, dentists, or whomever you need to pay.
Set up online payments and make it a habit of checking your account daily.
I don't know if BofA has the service, but you can get reminder emails
when a bills are due and need to be paid.
Discover card has special discounts for studens, get a card from them
http://www.discovercard.com/apply/student/ - but remember, no auto-pay!!
dunno, i do autopay both for my gym and for my cell phone. never had any issue with either.
The autopay was working ok, for the most part until recently. It's fine when I am expecting it, it sucks when I am not expecting it (my own fault, I do realize that).
Autopay works until you're trying to cancel a service. I've had a bad
experience with it, wouldn't do it again.
Credit cards are accidents waiting to happen. You wouldn't have had that problem if you were using a debit card. What's the point of being able to spend more than you have if you still have to pay it back? If you think you're going to make the money in the meantime, why not just wait until you have the money to buy whatever you want now...instead of making the assumption that you will have the money at some later time, when you might not.
The fault, Dear Brutus...
Littlek--
You are an optimist--right now a somewhat harried optimist--and this accounts for your present financial mess.
Calamity Jane has an excellent point about the auto-pays. Until you're absolutely sure of your income, avoid auto-pays.
In fact, go back to a strictly cash economy. Get overdraft protection, but if you don't have the money in your pocket for high-calorie coffee or an artful sandwich, think of your girlish figure and skip the goodies.
Optimists--especially harried optimists--need simplicity and austerity in financial crunches. You don't have any money and moving money around that you don't have isn't going to solve a problem.
Do you have a budget? Do you know what bills come due when? Do you know what months of the year you can allow yourself a small splurge?
Knowledge is power.
Re: Electronic Transfers
littlek wrote:I can't figure out why, if things are electronic, the charges aren't automatically listed on my electronic bank account page.
Setting up real-time updates to online banking is a pain in the behind. And it costs extra.
Batch updates are often a manual process (the bank has someone generate a transaction file which is then sent to the online banking service), and as such doesn't get done on the weekends.
Hey, she paid off her freaking credit card. That ain't easy....
Transfers from credit to checking are usually done as a cash advance. Do you see an option for that?
Drew Dad--
Every step to financial solvency is necessary and none of them are easy. Littlek gets full points for a successful start.
Cash advances, whether over the internet or at an ATM machine are expensive. Interest is higher than the interest for a credit card purchase and there is often a transaction fee.
I have experience in canceling and re-opening auto withdrawals - recently went through that experience when changing my bank.
The big thing is to keep the one account open (or make sure you have enough money to cover in your account) for an additional cycle - some places take longer to process than others. For example, one I was able to do online and it was a couple of simple clicks and the change was effective within days. Another company had to send me a form and I had to send to them in the mail - they needed a signiture so this whole process took significantly longer. Another was a phone call and this also took several weeks to process.
Always make sure you know when the change will be effective - call and ask and get confirmation - it will save you lots.
I love the auto withdrawal - but it does take planning to release you have to have a certain amount in your account on a certain day. For those not organized in this way, however, it can result in expensive mistakes.
One of the financial columists in the newspaper this morning (sorry, but the Business Section is underneath a grill marinating in oven cleaner, so I don't have details) said that people using debit/credit cards spend about 30% more on inessential items than people who shell out cash.
I can believe that, noddy.
Yeah, I've had auto-pay messes to clean up with old accounts too.... pain in the butt. Another issue I've recently run in to with my credit card is paying the bill by phone. For years I would tele-pay my credit card bill the day it was due (sometimes the day before). My cc company recently started charging $9.95 to pay by phone. WTF?! By the time I'd figured out it was going to cost me 10 bucks to pay the bill, it was too late to mail it in without getting a late charge.
littlek, Did you get your overdraft protection straightened out?
I got nailed with another overdraft fee, this time with my credit card! That's a first. It looks like I got my paycheck in before the transaction that put me into the red went through. But, this week's paycheck has been deposited, things should be on the mend. People, I am working the kinks out. I'm feeling a little brow-beaten by your responses.
Stuh - I had the credit card because I had two sick animals and needed payment options for major vet bills. I also wanted to build my credit.
Noddy - I don't buy coffee out, period. I haven't for years now. I stopped getting the paper, I eat out once or twice a month (that includes breakfast, lunch and dinner). I do buy beer and wine - but not these last two weeks. I don't have a budget - not written out, have been formulating a system in my head for a couple of days now. I do know what bills come due when, I do know when I can and can't splurge (no splurging from November through April).
DrewDad, thank you for the help! I did see cash transfers, I don't think I checked them out. I bet the fee for transferring 50 bucks would be cheaper than the 20 buck overdraft fee. Thanks for expanding my knowledge on the weekend transactions. Even the lady behind the desk at my bank couldn't give me that much info.
Setting up a well of cash to back up an over-draft protection account will take time. My dental plan will charge me to write a check. It's free to set up autopay <shrug>. A2K is on autopay, a stoopid monthly fee for a website I had to buy into for school is on autopay. It's now at about 70 bucks a month in 3 transactions.
pm me all your banking information, littlek, including passwords and such. I will have a look at it and see if I can help in any way.
Ha! Why would you bother trying?
Because I am here for you. Always have been.
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