Halloween Currency Frights

So, today I was at the bank because I couldn't access my savings account online.  I had transferred the rest of the money out of the account to cover a bill, but when I tried to put some back in, poof - no savings account.  I tried to make a deposit through the ATM.  Denied.

*Stomping feet to the car*  Fine, I'll bite.  Off to the bank branch in person.  I gave them my check and asked them to deposit it into my savings account, and... it's not open any more.  A manager came over to try to re-open it, but she couldn't, and so our conversation went:

Me: "So, the account is closed?  There is a minimum balance?"
Manager:  "No.  It was just at zero too long."
Me:  "But there's no minimum balance?'
Manager:  "No."

She was very helpful in opening a new one for me and depositing my check, but now I have a PayPal transaction that's going to have a big, fat FAIL on it when they eventually figure out my savings account had been buried without a proper memorial service.  How does an account close itself if there is no minimum balance?  How does my account cause the bank any grief if it just sits idle for a few weeks?  I think it was at zero for 30 days or so when I realized that I couldn't transfer money to it any more.  Does an empty savings account REALLY cause that much overhead that they have to close it?  It's just a virtual placeholder, for criminy's sake.  Maybe they closed it because they were afraid I was going to use it again and gather that 0.000000001% interest on the balance every quarter.  A penny for your savings, please.

You'd think between the precarious position of the dollar and numerous bank failures, Citizens Bank would at least want to keep the option open for me to put money back into the bank.  Although, Bank of America has no problem with keeping my credit account open after declining an APR increase, just in case I use the card one day, so they have the option of raising my APR to 14% on one card and 25% on the other.  The timeframe for what Obama and his administration signed for the credit laws is simply too long - they should have done a sting operation so the credit companies don't have several months to milk their customers of sinfully high APR percentages, making up new fees and increasing existing ones.  I don't know why they look so pleased when we're still hurting.

Oh dear.  Between a screaming, colicky baby who is teething at four months old and the general state of our economy, I believe I have turned into an unreasonable nitpicker whose foray into this blog has lost a bit of focus.  But what better way to find out what's going on in the national news that to actually live it?  Credit used to be cheap, but when it was made available to every person whose credit score was less than perfect, it spiraled out of control.  Similarly, when every person could get a mortgage regardless of their income or credit history, those who usually could not afford owning a home are now paying dearly for it.

What does this have to do with my closed savings account?  No clue.  Not much about this economy or money in general makes sense these days.  In order to "save" this economy, everyone has a different theory:  Is it spreading the wealth?  Spreading opportunity?  Trade allies?  Ugh, who knows.  All I know is that banks are failing and I didn't have a place to rest the money I DO have.  If anyone can make sense of that knotty mess, I'd be much obliged.

Quick Hitters

With two little girls, a business to run and more transcription than I know what to do with, things have been pretty crazy in my abode, and my poor blog is sprouting cobwebs worse than the ones sold at Wal-Mart for the Halloween season.  No matter how small my readership is, I know some of you visit on a frequent basis, so thanks for keeping the faith.  


I just have a few brief thoughts on some news items that you are probably familiar with.  I'll hyperlink when appropriate; otherwise, you'll just get to hear me jabber on!

• A Facebook friend made a great point on her status today:  In a nutshell, Ed Rendell is asking sick folks to stay home and recuperate without spreading H1N1.  The friend thought it "funny" that Rendell can say this to folks living near or below the poverty line while he earns six figures.  How sad is that?  Job security is shakier than ever, and yet we feel that we have to choose between spreading our germs or keeping our jobs.
• Is it me, or does the sex offender/missing child ratio seem to favor the Florida area more than most?  Another day, another child dies at the hands of some sicko in that Southern state.  Yet another Facebook friend posted what she'd like to do to these people, and I can say that some very bad thoughts indeed have crossed my mind if someone were to get their paws on my girls.  
• I think everyone should be able to have health insurance.  There was a time when I faced a lapse in coverage, and it was awful.  But I'm not sure the Dems have the right idea with this public option.  For starters, the deficit has swelled to the amount it was after WWII.  That is a right large deficit for me, my husband, children and children's children to pay off.  Insurance companies have gotten much too powerful, but then again, I don't want to stay in the public option if I leave my job, especially if I can afford a private plan. 
• Did anyone else cheer when Ken Lewis (Bank of America CEO) resigned from BofA, and then pay czar Kenneth Feinberg asking him to pay back $1M in compensation?  And then did anyone get SPITTING mad when we found out his compensation package ($69.3M)?  Look, you need to pay good money to good businessmen and entrepreneurs who can help create jobs.  But when he turns into a crook who is making me pay 25% interest on a debt incurred from a failed business attempt, with no late payments or other blemish on my perfect credit record, then I wonder how BofA can afford to give that compensation while posting a third-quarter loss of about $1 billion?  No one wins.
• H1N1.  I'm not vaccinating against that or seasonal/regular flu.  I'm not against it, but I've got worries about vaccinating against a virus.  That said, it's killing people my age, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried a little bit. 

What a boring post!  Compared to some of my last posts, I guess I have slipped into the dreaded direction of talking about what everyone else is talking about.  I guess my creative juices are being milked directly into my daughter (pun intended).  One of these days I will write about some of the great links my husband sends me from physorg.com - now that's some interesting reading, if you know where to look - like this article about a study one of my former professors recently completed.  If there's a link you click today, it should be that one.