Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Oh dear. I still write paper checks for my HOA fee. I like to have an imaged copy of it, but I suppose I can get away from paper checks now primarily because of my sheer laziness outweighs the check writing. I have no impetus for ordering new checks. I don’t need to express myself with angels, butterflies, or Garfield.

I can’t believe my sloth will be the final undoing of paper checks in my life.

As I peruse the payees in my paper register, (Only to keep track of what I wrote, otherwise, it’s Quicken all the way) I see that I paid off my back taxes, my student loans, my car loan. I see the escrow money for my condo, the check for my motorcycle. All of it logged in my checkbook for the last four years.

Not being able to send a check whenever I want will make me nuts.

My solution? Get rid of my Wachovia checking account and open one somewhere else and get some new checks. Crazy. I know. The link is to an older post when I first thought of doing this.

Fundamentally, I’m really ticked off at Wachovia for charging me for my Quicken download. I was very certain over the last month NOT to do a Quicken download, but they charged me anyway! So screw them! I’m closing that account.

I went into a bank this afternoon after a dental appointment. I am happy to report a new checking account. I will have to get it ready with Direct Deposit, etc, but it will be worth it to get away from Wachovia. I decided to go with a box of checks anyway for the peace of mind I will have. At least the bank officer was kind enough to let me request what will go on the check. First initial last name only, no phone number and no apartment number.

There is still much that needs to be done before I can terminate my relationship with Wachovia completely, but let that be a lesson to Wachovia, don’t be stupid and just eat the cost of doing business!

Yes indeedy. I did it.

I am cheesed off with Wachovia for charging me to download from within Quicken, but not so cheesed off as to kill that account. I really do feel more comfortable with a brick and mortar bank locally. So this means my Philadelphia based checking bank is going the way of the dinosaur. I feel so bad because I opened that account in 2003 at the bank branch I used to go when I was a little kid with my piggy bank. I still think of it as my bank, even today, though I don’t even take cash out of their ATM’s when I go home. Screw the sentimentality, let’s talk brass tacks on why I chose ING.

1) I already have a relationship with them: I really didn’t want to go through the annoyance of learning a new GUI with Virtual Bank or NetBank. It was extremely easy for me as an existing account holder to click a few clicks and open a checking account.

2) It’s paying 4.00% APY: My old checking account paid no interest at all and was free with direct deposit. Seems to me, for the $1000+ deposits I would make there for my fixed expenses, I might as well earn some interest on the float while the funds were still in the account.

3) It uses Quicken! Sounds crazy, since all banks pretty much have an interface with Quicken. But for some reason my old bank in PA was really behind the times on this and did not integrate well with it. I had to get crazy stuff set up by calling a rep, etc. It was phenomenally stupid, so I didn’t bother with transaction download. Because this is a low-traffic account for fixed expenses. I could pretty much balance it once or twice a month with Quicken’s reconcile feature and it would work just fine.

4) My girlfriend did it first: One of my local friends was asking me about it. I told her I really didn’t know much about it, but then she decided to do it because of Reason #2. She seems pretty happy with it and has no serious complaints other than the fact the ATM card hasn’t arrived yet. But for me, I won’t even use the ATM card since I have my local brick-and-mortar bank which is convenient enough to home and office.

5) I think there is a hard credit pull: There is an overdraft protection feature that offers you X dollars of credit. I am pretty certain this means they’ve done a hard credit inquiry. Yes, I realize this possibility may drop my credit score, but I don’t really care since I haven’t opened a credit account since June 2006 and have no plans to open another for any reason whatsoever in the next 2 years. EDIT: Per Reader Dave, there is no hard credit pull, via the ING FAQ. THANKS DAVE!!

I haven’t done anything yet with it. I am in the process of transferring over my direct deposit from work. I did set up some of my regular outgoing expenses and that was fairly easy. I don’t like going entirely paperless, but I don’t think this transition will kill me, and perhaps it will help me tame “the paper tiger” around the house. I keep too much paper crap and it’s bugging me. I actually spent some time de-cluttering the mess on my desk and I am happier as I write this post.

PS - I just noticed that the DST change has effected the posting of my posts since March 11th. I just added an hour to the time on this post to reflect the accurate time.

Why do people think this is a taboo subject? One of LAMoneyGuy’s most controversial and popular posts was about this subject. Even Blunt Money writes about what to do when friends aren’t supportive about financial efforts.

(more…)

I’m a dork. After buying groceries on Wednesday night, I lost my ATM check card. I have no idea where it went. I was busy consoling a friend in CA by telephone about his girl troubles and plum forgot where I put the card. It usually goes right back into my wallet, so I’m not sure where it went.

I was getting ready to go out on Thursday night and tore up my apartment looking for it. Was it in my coat? My pants pockets? (I checked every pair I wore this week.) Did I shove it into a bag? Is it with the receipt? Where did the receipt go? A thousand frantic questions went through my mind.

I broke down and called for an ATM card right away since I was going into the weekend. It took forever to get a rep on the phone because the menu doesn’t voice recognize ‘agent’ and does not offer a lost or stolen card option, even though THEIR WEBSITE TELLS YOU TO CALL THEM TO REPORT A LOST CARD.. grrr. Try Gethuman.com for a list of companies and how to get a human agent on the line.

Getting a card is efficient once you get a person on the line, but here’s the catch. It will take 5-10 business days for the card to arrive. If you want expedited service, it’s a $16.00 fee and you have to be home to sign for it. I told them forget it. I will wait for a card and conserve cash. (Another post soon, I promise.)

Don’t lose your ATM card. The expedited fee is ridiculous. Can you manage two weeks without cash though? Just think about it. I will be posting something about it tomorrow.

In the DC Metro area at any rate.

If you go to Chevy Chase Bank, they have coin counting machines that will give you a little slip. Then you take it to the teller and they give you bills for it. You don’t have to have an account there to use it! That’s what so great about it!

A small warning, my friend observed a <.01% error rate. It was very small. Pennies difference on about $15.00. And when my friend told the teller, she rounded up the payout so nothing was actually lost.

This is a relief to find out. I was on the verge of taking a cup of change to a Coinstar machine and getting an Amazon gift card to avoid the Coinstar fee. But I would rather save the money instead of spending. (Or else turn it into a year’s worth of laundry money quarters so I never have to make a special trip again.)

Did you know that a lot of banks have free notary services if you have an account with them? Wachovia does and I’m kicking myself.

I called a UPS/FedEX type store and it was $5.00 a signature. I needed three. I called my old company because they have a notary on staff. Her services are free to employees of my old firm. For outsiders, ex-employees and the world at large, she charges $2.00. Not bad. However for all the time I spent in traffic during a rainstorm, I might have been better off going to the nearest UPS store and paying extra. However, I’m feeling cheap and didn’t do that.

Instead, I got a nice gossipy session with my former co-worker. Really juicy stuff. I forgot to give her 6 bucks and had to mail her a check. My three signatures are costing $6.39. (Stamps are 39 cents now right? Because I swear they are 37 cents still, and the stamps I have don’t say anything but First Class.)

Long and short? If you need a notary, check for three things.

1) Does your bank offer the service to you for free?
2) Does your company have a legal office or a notary public on staff who will provide services for free?
3) How much do they charge per signature if they charge you a fee.

I was really surprised to find out that charges were at the discretion of the notary. For some reason I recall notary services used to be some crazy amount of money, like $15 apiece. I am so very glad go get it for $2 with dishy gossip, but not when I could have gotten it for free without the hassle of traffic.

College Grad on trying to get a student loan forbearance. It’s not as easy as they would have you believe. But then again, consider if your loan is private or government. That seems to be the difference.

Kira at Penny Foolish, she’s one to watch. This a great post and it goes with my old post about increasing blog traffic.

Her at Make Love Not Debt asks if she can charge her rent and make rewards benefits. I think that’s a great idea if you can get it. Her commenters have great solutions.

Bestest. Kid. EVAR. SingleMa is doing something right!

Heads up if you are from Ohio and have used the Ohio University’s health system. Credit Bloggers.com has the story. I have a few people from OH who read this blog and I’m sure they are going to care about identity theft. Especially of deceased relatives who were treated at those facilities. Those are valid SSN’s ripe for identity theft.

FiveCentNickel asks when is an in-state check and out-of-state check? Read on. Basic lesson? Open a local checking account and save yourself the headache when moving across state lines. Take it from me. I moved 7 times in 2 years, including cross country to three different states. Just open a new account. It’s a lot easier.