Someday...Another Bank

The day was April 15, 2008...payday. Also happened to be tax day...but thats another story. I checked my bank account in the morning and had seen funds come in. I figured that I only had 403.64 left of this debt. So, seeing that it wasn't very much, decided to make a transfer and make the final payment to the account.

I was promptly given an error. The error read "You cannot make a payment that is equal or greater than the balance." What the hell is that supposed to mean?

I called the support line to find out what was going on. A customer service representative, Heather answered the phone. I told her the message that I was receiving and she told me that through online transfers, I cannot make the final payment on any loan accounts with this particular financial institution. She explained that I can't make the final payment because the online system doesn't reflect the outstanding principal. I then asked her for the outstanding principal balance including the interest that had accrued. She told me that the outstanding balance up to the day was 406.44. Fine, I asked if I could make the payment over the phone through her. She told me that I could, except that there would be an 8 dollar fee associated with this transaction.

This particular bank nickel-and-dimes me for everything. Pretty much everything that I do, they charge me a fee. It's quite ridiculous.

I asked her what I could do then. She said that I either had to do the transfer on the phone with her and get charged 8 dollars or go into the branch and close it in person. I told her that its ridiculous to charge me 8 dollars in order for me to make the final payment or require me to go into the local branch to make the final payment.

During today's lunch, I went down to the local branch to make the final payment. I stood in line and was helped by Jaqueline. I told her the situation about me wanting to pay off my student loan. She just looked at me in a puzzled way and called over the teller supervisor, Rodrigo. Rodrigo asked what I was trying to do, and I told him that I wanted to pay off my student loan. He spoke to Jaqueline for a moment, I couldn't hear what they were saying. Jaqueline then tells me that I should talk to Matt about making the final payment to this student loan. I turn around and look for Matt. She tells me that Matt is directly behind me with the tie.

Matt told me that it wasn't going to be a problem and that he just had to get the current outstanding principal balance. This looked promising. So he got on the phone and called the student loan department. The first person he spoke to was Josie. When Matt explained the situation to her, it sounded like he reached the wrong department. He was then transfered to Melody. Matt again explained the situation to her. She then was able to give him the balance that needed to be paid. Great. I then asked if I could make the payment through him. Matt told me that I'd have to go back in line to one of the tellers and have the transfer done through one of them. Dangit.

So I stand back in the teller line and wait for another teller to help me out in closing this. Its finally my turn and Tracey helps me out. I tell her exactly what I want to do and what the outstanding balance is. She looks down at the counter and thinks for a bit. She then calls Rodrigo over again and asks how to perform the transaction that I want to do. He then punches something into the computer real quick and it somehow rings a bell to Tracey and she was able to carry out the transaction.

Finally, I've paid this thing off and it only took me 1 phone call, standing and waiting for a teller, getting referred to a personal banker, who had to place a call and got transfered, then standing and waiting for another teller to finally make the final payment. Ugh!

Someday...I'll have another bank.