Will someone please tell me what’s going on with the computer money lately?
About two months ago, I went to a Costco and it kept rejecting my debit card. Weird. I knew there was more than enough money in the account. But just to speed things up, I wrote a check instead. The next day I was online and checked the account, and it showed that the charge had gone through after all. Freaking out, I called the “Financial Institution” and put a stop-payment on the check. A week later I got a bitchy letter from Costco about the stop-payment, and, feeling very smug, I checked the online account. The transaction had completely disappeared! Explanation: The debit transaction sort of went through but the computer waits for about 5 days to receive a confirmation code. If it doesn’t get the code, the transaction vanishes. I felt like a moron, trying to explain to the nice FI people that, really! I swear! It was there! I saw it!
Three weeks ago, I went to an ATM at my office building to get some cash for the weekend. It told me I couldn’t have any. Huh? So I went to the ATM on the corner. It told me I couldn’t have any. Wha? Come on. I just got paid. To paraphrase a comedian I saw this evening on Last Comic Standing, I wasn’t broke (that day) – the balance had a comma in it. I called the FI, and they weren’t answering the phone. Can you spell “cold-hard-pit-in-my-stomach”, boys and girls? Who’s got my money, honey? How the hell was I supposed to get my car out of the parking garage? Two hours later, I finally got a human and was told that the Star network was down.
(As an aside, here’s my pet peeve of the day: The letters ATM are initials, people. They stand for Automated Teller Machine. The M stands for Machine. Stop calling it an ATM Machine! See? It already has the word “machine” in it! Okay, I feel better now)
Today, MJ went to the grocery store and his debit card was being rejected. Turns out that this time, the whole Visa network was down. What the hell is going on out there?
I’m feeling very vulnerable. I mean, I’m all in favor of paperless-as-much-as-possible. I see enough paper in the average work day to reconstruct a freaking forest. I don’t like carrying cash around, because, well frankly, shit falls out of my pockets (I like pockets – I really don’t like carrying purses on the street because it makes me feel like a target). I nearly lost my iPhone a half-dozen times in the first two weeks because the very slim, sleek style that’s so lovable about it, is also very slick. It kept deciding to go walkies on its own, right out of my pocket. Maybe it was bored. I’m sure I’m still not using it to its full potential. I finally got a “skin” for it for traction. Not so slim and sleek anymore, but leashed.
Where was I? Oh, yeah. I like the idea of swiping a card and getting just what I need, just when I need it. And even though I love computers, I’m just a little leery of them having that much control.
