I Wish I Cared

Actually I don't. In my 5+ years of banking experience, I have dealt with many many customers. Some sweet, some not so sweet. When you deal with something as personal as some one's finances you get to really see an interesting side of people. One thing I have to say is that I'm grateful that I started out in banking after my first year of college. It really taught me how to manage my finances and I gained an understanding of how things work in the banking world. Ultimately I know it has helped me succeed in being financially independent. Another thing I have gained from banking is my scrupulosity for balancing my checkbook. You would not believe how many people come in every single day and say the 4 words that make you want to lean over the counter and slap them on the face. "My account is overdrawn!" Okay okay, some people really do have legitimate excuses, but honestly most of them are just plain stupid. Especially the ones you have coming in at least once every month with the same old story. You start to feel less and less sorry for these people.

Let's discuss overdraft fees. What a freaking rip off! I cannot believe how high overdraft fees are getting. It irritates me to the bone that customers get charged so much. Yet my irritation for this is completely outweighed by my irritation for people who just can't figure it out. 99.9% of customers that come in and tell us their account is overdrawn do not keep a check book register. They don't utilize online banking to track their spending. I actually don't know how they keep up with how much money they have. Apparently they must have some magical gift of just knowing where their finances are at currently. But when they overdraw, guess who's fault it is! The banks. Or better yet, it's mine personally since I work at the bank. *Sigh* Folks! Why don't you balance your checkbook? Keep a register! Yes it can be annoying to start out with, but with such great technology as online banking and 24 hour phone banking and still getting those monthly statements in the mail, it leaves little room for excuses in my mind. As far as I see it, you've got a choice. Keep a checkbook register and lose maybe 5-10 minutes a day or every other day. Or don't and lose $100 -$300 bucks every month. To me, this decision is simple. To others, obviously very very complicated and difficult.

I had an extremely friendly gentleman tell me he was closing his account because the bank wouldn't reverse anymore of his overdraft fees and that it wasn't even his fault. 4 1/2 years ago I would've been interested to hear this story of how the bank just stole this poor man's money. Today I just nodded my head faked some pity and tried to get rid of him as quickly as possible. He then felt it necessary to carry on about how he was taking his money down the road to some specific bank (he did think it was important to tell me which one it was) and that he was going to have his wife close her account and make sure to tell everyone he knows to not open an account with us. It was late in the afternoon and I was losing my patience so I said "Sir, if it makes you feel better to vent to me, go right on ahead and do that. And if you want to close your account, that's fine. It doesn't affect me any. And if you feel the need to tell everyone you know to not do business with us, I'm not gonna stop ya." Yes, maybe I exhibited some "poor" customer service, but I will have the last laugh when he overdraws his account at the bank down the road and realizes he's in the same situation he was at his previous bank. I guess that's people for ya. I figure he'll just keep changing banks though until he can figure out that check register thing. Best of luck to him.