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11/29/2003 Entry: "I still hate banks - Part 600" Today, I am yet again reminded of why I hate banks. I specifically hate corporate banks, which are run by low-paid morons, and managed by overpaid morons who care as little for the customer as they can get away with. My bank, Small Local Bank, was swallowed up by HugeMegaCorp Bank, which I knew was inevitable. While Small Local Bank was not perfect, it was the best bank I could find back in 1993 that wasn't run by inept non-English speaking tellers and Slim-fast junkies with pancake makeup for managers. But part of my biggest beef with Small Local Bank was that, for some reason, my company and Small Local Bank could NOT figure out how to do an automatic deposit to my checking account. Every time they tried, it either got rejected or put into the wrong account (my son's savings - this was also a problem with all bank transfers I have ever received). So for the last few years since my company went to a "paycheckless" system, I have had the money deposited into my son's account, and then I would transfer that money, by hand, into my checking. Twice I tried to have this fixed, and twice the bank claimed they never got the transfer, and my company (whose HR and Payroll people also have English as a second language), claimed my bank "rejected the tape," which they were never able to define what that meant without using an annoying circular logic. And each time it would take a month without pay to sort it all out. I mean, I'd get all the money owed to me in the end, usually by a hand-written check I had to pick up at our main branch, but I am not in the financial position to go a month without pay. And since my wife, who runs her company's payroll, was able to deposit her paycheck into the correct Small Local Bank account without a speck of a problem, I suspect the morons at my company for the mistake. So anyway, it's a few years later. My new bank has issued me new account and routing numbers, but they said the old ones would be good for a year until the "buyout was finalized." I fear that day. They also started charging me monthly fees for my accounts, which will be waived if I maintain an average balance of $5000 a month or more... but if I had that much money just lying around, I wouldn't give a crap about an $8/mo fee. So at the beginning of November, I went to my new bank to find out why the hell I couldn't transfer money from my son's savings to checking anymore. Long story short (or read the link), all my stuff was messed up. They did say they fixed it, and for the most part, they seem to have fixed it... I still have the money, and no checks have bounced, and they let me have access to my account online. Transfers made easy, right? WRONG! I did a "test transfer" of $1, and it said it would take 48 hours to go through the system. Well, it never did. And now I find my son's savings account is no longer authorized to withdraw from! Ha ha! That will show ME! I could transfer all the money I wanted TO it, but not FROM it. %$@!$^%#*&!!! And because I had some heavy bills to pay, I erroneously trusted the bank to do as they promised, and I'd be able to deposit the money with no problem. God, I am gullible. Plus they have been closed since Thursday due to the Thanksgiving long weekend, so I wasn't able to do this when I was off from work. No, that would have been convenient! So... looks like I will have to sort this all out on Monday, face to face with someone, again, to sort this stupid crap out. Plus to explain why I haven't gotten any statements since the buyout. Then I am going to try my best to get the "eediots" at my company to get the correct account and routing info to deposit my paycheck into the CORRECT account, so I won't have to deal with hand-transferring money anymore. Maybe, in some way, HugeMegaCorp Bank can work with my company where Small Local Bank failed.