Banking daze

Recently Tom and I opened a joint checking account, out of which we will pay shared expenses and so on. (We each maintain our own personal checking accounts as well.) It has been an interesting experience. Without going into all the details, here is the latest adventure.

Yesterday I went in to close out my money market account (which is drawing practically no interest these days anyway) and transfer the money therein to the joint account for my contribution thus far. The bank had just moved to a "new system" -- that dread reality in the computer-controlled world of today -- and they said it would take a while for them to figure it out. Actually the teller was very friendly and helpful, as were the three other people, including her supervisor, who came over to figure out how to do this. The account was closed, the money transferred and they promised me that the joint account would now show up on my internet banking page so that I could transfer money back and forth and so on.

Oh yeah! They had discovered that they had no signature card for Tom and me on this account, so I signed one and took it home for Tom to sign and return to them later in the day. Just another little thing ...

This morning when I checked my internet banking page, I discovered that the money market account was still listed, only now it showed me owing the bank $35.00. There had been a $10 fee for closing the account and transferring the funds. (That I knew, since I had recorded it carefully in my own check register.) Apparently what happened was ...

They transferred all the money to the joint account.
Then they closed the money market account, leaving it with a $0.00 balance.
The computer then took out the $10.00 service charge from the (supposedly closed) money market account. Since there was no money there, they then charged me $25.00 for an overdraft fee on top of the $10.00 service charge.

I printed all this out and took it over to straighten it out. They assured me that they had already found the error this morning and had sent a fax off to straighten it out. I left, somewhat (only somewhat) reassured.

I went off to do other business and then logged onto my computer a couple of hours later to see what it showed.

The internet banking page is unavailable while they are doing "routine maintenance."

In the middle of a business day, they shut down their online banking (which they advertise as a great thing they offer) to do routine maintenance?

I just hope when I check back later all is as it should be.

TOM, BTW, has done his major banking for many years with another bank with a branch in Reedsburg. It would not be as convenient as this one just down the road, but we may wind up moving everything over there at some point.

Meanwhile, I am paying bills out of the joint account and keeping very careful records.