I went to the bank to close one of my bank accounts today. I have several different bank accounts open at different banks. I like banking at lots of different banks because I want to see what each bank is really like. People are always asking me what I think about this bank or that bank. Between the banks my clients and I deal with, I think I have a pretty good picture of what different banks are like.
I decided last year that I was going to work at not keeping money at any of the big banks. I always had a problem with my affiliation with big banks, but the locations were so convenient. But the Occupy Wallstreet movement solidified the decision for me. I started the process of banking at credit unions and small local banks.
Changing banks is a lot of work – especially if you don’t have a lot of money and you have a lot of transactions going on. I have automatic deductions, I write a lot of checks, and I pay a lot of our bills on-line. My husband has direct deposit through his job and he uses foreign ATM’s a lot.
I found a local bank that I really like. They pay interest for a checking account, they reimburse for foreign ATM fees (huge!), and the account is free (so far). All these banks love to talk about a “free” checking account, but I’ve noticed that after a few years they start implementing monthly maintenance fees or debit card charges or something.
The bank account I closed just started charging me $4.99 a month. Ugh. But like I said, changing banks is not an overnight thing. I had already contacted my husband’s payroll department to get the paycheck to go into the new account; I went on-line and changed the bank for all the automatic deductions; and there are on-line transactions that weren’t automatic, but still had the old bank information on their website. Some transactions take several weeks to start using the new bank, and if you have any outstanding checks, you can either wait for them to clear or contact the payee and write them a new check. Whew!
I had left $9 in this bank account waiting for one check that I wrote to my kid’s school to clear. The check was for $5.50 and I wrote it last September for some educational thing. It was December and the check still hadn’t cleared. I sent an e-mail to my son’s teacher and she said it should clear any day now. Christmas came and went and finally on January 9th it cleared. But on January 5th the bank charged me $4.99 “for keeping such a low balance in the account”. So now I have a negative balance.
I know you have to go into a bank to close an account – you can’t do it over the phone. So today was the day to go to the bank. My plan was to get them to reverse the fee, close the account and get my $3.50 back.
I noticed as I was getting dressed that morning my change in behavior. Usually I wear sweats and sneakers when I’m running errands to places like the post office and the bank. Sometimes I don’t even shower! (Was that TMI?) But this morning I put on a little nicer outfit (just a little nicer) and even a dab of make up – to close out a bank account with $3 in it?!
When you don’t have a lot of money and you have to deal with banks, it can be disconcerting. Even for me, and I deal with money and finances all the time. I had nothing to prove to these people and feel strongly about my decision to change banks, and I’m still making sure I look and act respectable for the occasion.
What’s this about? Fear. Fear of what people will think. Fear of a possible confrontation. Fear of what the bank person may say.
So what happened? Nothing. Everything went fine. The woman was perfectly polite, they reversed the fee, they gave me my $3.50 and said “Thank you for your business.” I was out the door in 10 minutes.
In this attempt at being honest with all my feelings of fear for this calendar year it occurs to me how difficult this relatively simple transaction at a bank may be for so many other people. Just going into a bank and asking for your $3 back - while wearing sweats and sneakers.
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