Today was the day

 After a long day of taking my sister for her second cataract surgery yesterday, I researched various banks in my state to see which one might benefit me the most since I was about to end my relationship with the bank I'd used for 31 years. 

I was going to start the procedures today.  I would start with my pension check directly deposited to the new bank.  My Social Security could continue to come to the current bank and would cover most of my utilities that were dependent online to that routing and account number.

Once I established the new bank with my pension check, I would go online and begin setting up all utilities to be drawn from the new account.  Then I would order checks and begin changing all my vendors online that used my bank card to the new bank.

Well, lo and behold guess who gets their notifications of my balance via e-mail (and text I edited to add on Wednesday).  The notification came to both.  Hmmm...I may still open an account with the new bank.  Just because.  I've been wanting to anyway, long before this hassle began.

Now, since I discovered my card was compromised on Monday morning (3 cash advances were pulled from my account adding up to over $100) I checked to see that they had been removed.  On Monday they were still pending, the bank has to wait until they are out of pending to remove them.  They have not been removed.  The last time my card was compromised (about a year or so ago) the charges were immediately removed.

So, now I need to call the bank (after 9 a.m. or whenever they open) to make sure they are going to follow through and add those amounts back into my account.  If I get anything other than stellar customer service about this issue, I will be thrown right back into an irate mental attitude.  The notification debacle began March 25th.  I understand that I was not losing money due to this glitch, but I feel that I had been extremely patient as support created three separate tickets regarding this matter and I had to remain vigilant for this issue to be resolved. In other words, I had to keep calling them to check on the progress only to find that nothing was being done about it.  After calling them, they would create a new ticket.  That continued until I blew up on poor Alice after she said "I will create a ticket...."

 By getting notifications via email, I would check it with my running register every morning to make sure both balanced.  As it was, I was not checking this on a daily basis between March 25th and April 13th.  On the 13th I logged into my account to find the three cash withdraws not performed by me.  Had I been receiving my daily notifications, I would have caught this on Friday the 10th.  Again, no money lost but since they offer this feature (I told them I liked this feature and thanked them for offering it) I had become used to it and I had relied on it for  years, I suddenly had to change my habit of checking my balance.  I even went so far as to investigate my google email account to ensure there was no filter or block that had inadvertently been created that would block the notifications or move them to trash or another folder in my email account.  No such filter existed.  It was then I thought - well, turn on the text notifications and if you receive them you will know that it is an email issue.  As it was, I did not receive any notifications on my phone text (until this morning) so that confirmed it was probably an issue with the bank.

Being out of town with my sister yesterday, I needed to go into a branch of my bank to withdraw cash so that I could pay for things since I did not have my card.  I had my checkbook with me and my drivers license, I was ready for them because I was a stranger to them and was out of town.  They were absolutely wonderful and especially thought it was funny when after telling them I opted for the bank sending me a new card in the US Mail that might take 7 to 10 days and I panicked when I realized I was unable to order anything off of Amazon.  Oh, the humanity! Or, would that be inhumanity?  LOL!  Amazon Prime does not give me the option for paying with my bank account and routing information, you have to use a bank card.

 BTW Amazon - get with it.  You may be losing orders as several people get their bank cards compromised and we may have to wait a week or so without being able to order from you. After 7 to 10 days we may not feel like purchasing it, or forget, or we actually left the house and purchased it elsewhere.

Okay, I'm off to mentally prepare myself to deal with a tortuous phone call to my bank to get the criminal charges removed from my account.  Just a side note...when I was younger (and I think this happens to a lot of folks) I would not have had the resources to cover an issue such as this. Especially, since I had to pay the IRS on Tuesday when I had never had to before in all my 50 years of working.  Although, I do believe only 47 of those years actually had federal income tax taken.  2025 was the first full year I was retired for all 12 months.  I received a refund in 2024 since I worked 6 months and was retired 6 months.  And before I was 15,  I had a paper route, so I guess I worked from 1973 until 2024.

Then again, I have to remember a lot of Seniors do not have the resources for issues such as this.  I am cognizant of the fact I am in a position where I can  tolerate the surprise monetary hits.  By no means could I cover large hits, but I am very grateful that I was able to for the current hits.