Free Money

As a preface to this post, I wanted to say thank you to all my wonderful new friends who were so concerned last Friday that I wasn't getting to go on a date with my hubby. I am happy to report that we get to go out on our date tonight, as long as nothing comes up, and it has been rumored that I might get dinner AND a movie...dare to dream!

I just love Fridays! I always have (for obvious reasons) but I have started to love them even more since I started linking up with one of my favorite people, MiMi, for her F Bomb Friday! I had such a hard time deciding which of two stories to tell this week, but this one won the coin toss, so here it goes...

When I was 16, I opened my first checking account. After I got married, Roon and I switched my account into a joint checking account, and everything was happy. A year or so later, our bank was bought out by a larger, more useless bank, so we naturally were forced to switch. No problems showed up for about a year. Slowly but surely, this bank (who shall remain nameless so I don't get sued for slander) climbed to the top of my "corporations I'm likely to boycot" list. Poor customer service, and just a general "I don't have to care" attitude, made this bank my ultimate nemesis. So, Roon and I finally decided we had enough.
Turns out that switching banks is a pretty major deal. Of course, we have a checking account, 5 saving's accounts (one for us, and one for each of our kids), a credit card, a car loan, and a mortgage all through this good for nothing bank.
After some careful research (okay let's be honest...after looking at two other banks on the internet, and figuring nothing could be worse than what we were currently dealing with) we found our Utopia. When D-day arrived, we put on our "Sears best" (as the Brady Bunch would say) and headed to the bank. After an hour or so, we were all set, minus the car loan (which will be paid off in March, so it wasn't worth the hassle) and the mortgage (which you know how long that can take...).
A few days later, we got our new debit cards. YEAH!!!
A day or so later, we got our new credit cards. This is where the swear words come into play...
I was confused as to why our credit cards came in separate envelopes. Our debit cards came in the same envelope, why not our credit cards? Then I noticed that each envelope was addressed to only one of us, instead of addressed "jointly". I opened them both (Federal offense, maybe, but tell me that you don't open your husband's mail...) and realized that one card said their limit was higher than the other. How in the heck could this happen?! Then I remembered the conversation with the banker...
Him: "Do you BOTH want a credit card?"
Me: (Thinking, "of course, why would I want my husband to be the only one with access to the credit card?") Yes, please.

He wasn't asking about the physical CARD, he was asking about the ACCOUNT. Not sure why he would assume that we wanted separate accounts, when we obviously didn't have separate accounts before, but whatever, genius! As expected, when I called to activate my account, and I talked with the nice lady about the mix up, she said that we would have to close both accounts, and open a new one, or close mine, and have me added on to Roon's account. And of course, she couldn't even let me activate his account. She had to talk to him (who was sitting right next to me) to activate his account. Well, that's convenient! Thanks for making our lives easier new bank!!!
Maybe I should keep my money in my mattress...

P.S. When all is said and done, I think what we have decided to do is keep my low limit (of course it's low limit, according to corporate America, I don't have a JOB) card and link it to our checking for "overdraft protection", and then add me onto Roon's account so I can have access. Just figures that we would switch banks to avoid the headaches, and encounter a problem within a week...Holy Moley!!!