January 21, 2007
Lesson: pay bills when AWAKE
Cost: $27
I woke up last week in the middle of the night thinking it was Thursday when it was really Tuesday, and royally screwed up. Like a idjit, I rolled over and paid a bill that I thought was due. Paying the bill wasn’t the problem. The problem was *disclaimer* I don’t know what possessed me *end disclaimer* instead of paying from the account I’d specifically deposited that money into for this purpose, I used the other checking account. Without the money.
This is what I usually do:
Step One: Transfer necessary funds from Citi savings to Citi checking. [within Citi, this is an instant transfer.]
Step Two: Transfer funds from Citi checking to credit card. [again, instant transfer.]
Five days later, I was completely confused as to why on earth Wamu would charge me a non-sufficient funds fee. “What the heck were they talking about??” I wondered. I had the biggest cash cushion in there, so it couldn’t be a random check that I somehow forgot about. [This happens when someone doesn’t cash a check for SIX MONTHS. Only a little annoying.]
Instead I had:
Step One: Check.
Step Two: **digression from norm** Left the Citibank site. Proceeded to the Citicards site. Set up a payment.
Step Three: Failed to notice that the checking account number in the dropdown box was for the Wamu account. Processed payment.
Step Four: Fell back asleep.
A phone call to Wamu cleared it up for me. Well, the call cleared up the technical details, I still don’t know why on earth I thought it was a good idea to pay a bill mostly asleep, in the dark, at 3 am. Be that as it may … I found that lo and behold, I was paying off my BT card to the tune of >$5000 and paid it from the WRONG checking account.
Good job, Ms. Mini. I can’t even argue that fee. I have no grounds for argument. Tschahhh! Oh well, live and learn.