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.
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