I made quite a bonehead move with my finances recently. It all started with a checking account I had set up here in Indianola last year. I figured it would be handy to have an account with a bank here in town in addition to my main account back home. This worked well for a while, but I didn’t add much money to it, and by the end of the school year it had pretty much dwindled to nothing (about $15 I think). So I basically didn’t even touch or think about it all summer.
Anyways, I was buying my textbooks about month ago from half.com. This worked out well except for this one book that I wasn’t finding on Half. So I headed over to Amazon and used my default account and card to buy the book. I’m sure you see where this is headed…
Fast forward to earlier yesterday morning, and I’m having trouble with my online banking. I can log in fine, but my account has mysteriously disappeared from the listing. I call up old Community State Bank to see what the deal is, and I’m greeted with the pleasant news: My account has been closed for several weeks and I owe the bank $105 for my negative balance and overdraft fees. What a great way to kick off Monday morning….
I completely forgot that when I made my last purchase on Amazon long before, it was with this banks’ debit card. The info got saved, and I didn’t even double check what card was going to be charged. In the rush to get all of my books and get ready for school, I didn’t even notice the $95 that didn’t get deducted in my regular account. The bank also said that they sent out a notice when it happened, but I probably just tossed it aside as it looked just like their monthly statements.
Oh well, sh!t happens. The bank said I took care of it in time before it got submitted to the credit bureaus, so I should be fine there. It’s also a perfect example of why a more complicated personal finance setup probably isn’t worth it. Now that I’m back to one checking account, it’ll be one less thing for me to worry about. KISS!
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