Above all else, protect yourself
“But, above all, take care of yourself.” Like a creature? No, like a bank.
Today, I learned a little more about self-preservation, in the financial sense. Several days ago, I deposited a sum of money, electronically, to my bank. With the goal of “making a payment” to that same bank. No plan to save, or spend with abandon. And, to be fair, the bank had advertised that I could deposit funds, all by myself. You can guess the outcome; the funds were “frozen”.
Today, I called the customer assistance number for the bank. Made my way through the maze of pre-programmed numbers, arranged by subject. And then, I waited. For almost an hour. Thankfully, my telephone has a “speaker” function, allowing me to listen to the numbing background music, with a reminder, once per minute, that I could now bank electronically. No need to visit a bank branch…
When I finally got through to a person (ironically, working from a safe place on another continent, far from any face-to-face time with me), I identified myself. Account number, name, address, date of birth; the whole gamut. And I asked about my funds, held safely at arms reach.
Turns out that there’s a tiered system. The more money you deposit, electronically, the longer it stays inaccessible to the depositor. Unless, of course, I wanted to undergo a complete analysis of my financial solvability. Sometime in the near future, I can proceed; make my payment. Until then, it belongs to the bank. And when I asked the inevitable question, “Why?”, I received the only possible explanation. This is how the bank protects itself from fraud. Of course!
