Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!parsec!ctvax!uokvax!jab From: jab@uokvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: Don't Bank On It - (nf) Message-ID: <5357@uiucdcs.UUCP> Date: Fri, 3-Feb-84 23:39:02 EST Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.5357 Posted: Fri Feb 3 23:39:02 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 8-Feb-84 05:44:00 EST Lines: 67 #R:uicsl:4300134:uokvax:2200027:000:3289 uokvax!jab Feb 1 22:10:00 1984 I agree, although for different reasons. (To people who are running "news" (boo, hiss), the story is that this student at U of I isn't really keen on the fact that banks have you over a barrel and let you know it, and an Oklahoma City person agrees. The above sentence, therefore, means that "I agree with the agreement.") I just bought most of an apartment full of furniture. Hearing that "getting a loan for such things helps the credit rating," I proceeded to hit up my local bank for the cash. (Keep in mind that I just got out of school, don't own a car, etc...) The officials at the bank were less than polite when they told me that unless I either had something for them to hold (I got the impression that they wanted my first-born) or a cosigner, I could take my business elsewhere. "Sure, Jeff," I hear you say. "It's bad business to loan money without something like that!" Well, fine, but there has to be a way out of this "Catch-22". I got them to tell me that if I wanted the money badly enough, I should deposit an equivalent amount in savings and let them use it as collateral. (I'm not keen on THAT, either.) After getting the money to put into the savings account, I found out that the processing of the loan would take long enough for a particular sale I was interested in to end. In short, getting the loan would cost me interest, frustration, and about $700 extra because of the time delay. I borrowed the money from myself. No paperwork, no time delays, no nasty bank officials. --- Perhaps I should tell you about the time that I deposited a check for $150 in the 24-hour machine and verified that $100 had been added to my balance, as far as the computer for the 24-hour machine was concerned. (The $100 was a figure that someone had decided on as the most that the computer could assume was "safe". Any larger amount had to wait for the humans to verify. Okay, I can understand that.) The balances on the computer were synchronized with the bank's balances every night at midnight. You can imagine my suprise when I tried to draw money out the next day (for a haircut!) and the damn thing had totally forgotten about my $150 deposit! It wasn't even kind enough to remember the $100 credit that it had registered the previous day. "Okay," I said. "The computer's out of sync with reality. I need $15, and I need it NOW. How can I convince the computer that I have the money?" (You should remember that a student's account tends to run on "empty" a lot.) Well, you can guess. I wrote a check to myself and deposited it into the 24-hour machine. This was just like cashing a check, I told myself. I know that there's money in the account to cover it, so there's no problem. The computer then registered my balance to something reasonable and let me withdraw my $15. I went to my appointment and forgot all about it. The bank called me up and told me that they were turning off my card. They were SURE that I was trying to rip them off (like the roommate of mine who financed a color TV with a 24-hour card!) and so on. I switched banks to a bank with a more primitive (read: usable) 24-hour machine. (Technology's all fine and well, but keep those Cobol programmers away from me!) Jeff Bowles Lisle, IL (Forgive me, Captain Hopper, for I have sinned.)