Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Bank talk again

I've just spent 30 minutes talking with my American bank (again.)

Last week my mother , age 90, sent me a hand written letter and included a bank card. On the top of the page she wrote,

"I don't know when I wrote this. It has been on my desk awhile. G.L."

(she initials her messages... like I wouldn't know it is her?!)

My mother predicted that I'd be surprised at getting a letter from her and I was. It's been years since I've seen her handwriting! Looking good! She wrote that since the bank had sent me a new Visa card, that she decided to enclose a letter. Oh how nice. Newsy but hmmm... Haven't I heard this news before? Ah well.

I waited until this morning to try to activate my card by telephone (since I'm not in the States to use the ATM machine I couldn't do it that way.) And it didn't work! Story of my life with the bank. So I had to call and talk to someone in person and explain my predicament.

The nice lady verified and re-verified that I was who I said I was. She gave me a temporary PIN number. She said she would activate my new card and that I could cut up my old card. And I brought my old card out to look at it before cutting.

WAIT! The old card is valid longer than the new card! What does this mean? The nice bank lady went away for 10 minutes and came back telling me that I should use my OLD card and cut up my NEW card! And that the old card's PIN number would remain the same and my problem was now solved. Nothing was changed.

Now... why did we have this rigmarole? I have a feeling that along with the old news in my mother's letter, she also enclosed an old bank envelope... with an older card that never got sent to me (last year?). That may have been why I've had so much trouble with my bank this year...

The nice bank lady never hinted that I might be the culprit in this card game and she apologized profusely for any inconvenience (although I'm pretty sure the inconvenience came from my side.)

Got to love my mother for trying!

I got a nice handwritten letter out of it!

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