Inanity. Abbreviated.

2011-10-17T13:32: Citibank Inanity

Instead of just keeping their account options simple, my bank wanted to price everyone out of an obsolete account type so they'd switch to a new one. What had been the basic no-fee checking account when I got it in 2000 got a $1,500 minimum balance last year and moves to a $6,000 minimum next month. So I asked to change my account to the new account type with a $1,500 minimum balance. This got done last week without too much apparent fuss.

After the change, I noticed that all my scheduled payments were gone. OK, I thought, that's a consequence of changing the account type. While the account number stays the same, the internal ID must be new (thought the programmer) so the links were gone. So I went through my history (a.k.a. check register) and wrote down all the payments that I knew were recurring. Then I entered them prior to the next ones coming up on the 16th, i.e. the day after my mid-month paycheck hits.

Today I logged on just to pay the water bill and found red text I'm not used to seeing: an overdrawn checking account. Turns out they helpfully restored all those old payments in time for both my old and new payments to be processed yesterday. Of course, the 16th is the biggest day of the month, with over $3,000 going out to various places including my mortgage and car note holders. Since it takes them three days to respond to a message online — and I can't call without a "telephone access code" I don't have — I'm sure nothing can be done. If I'm lucky I can get some or all of the payees to handle the extra payment as next month's minimum. If not, I'm technically not out any money, but I will have used some cash reserves that need to be rebuilt. I would probably shorten my mortgage by 6-7 months and save a nice amount of interest by letting that one go, for example, but the benefits in 2038 don't help cashflow this month.

Oh well, if I thought another bank would actually be any different I'd switch, but this kind of mistake is just going to happen. I still have to do something with my savings account (which can't simply be switched over like the checking account) but soon this should all be over and I'll have another 5+ uneventful years of banking.

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