Oh, woe is me.
I have two checking accounts in my name and one that I share with mr. kenju, but I don't use that one often. Sometimes I pull the wrong checkbook out of my purse, but I usually catch that mistake by looking at my balance.
Apparently, sometime in the last 9-10 days, I switched the check registers, and I've been writing checks and making debits in an account that can't support that activity - meaning there may not be enough moolah in it. I even recorded my latest social security deposit in the wrong account. Do you know how that makes me feel? I can assure you, it feels crappy. I am in the process of printing the last 2 months worth of statements for each account and I hope I will be able to figure out the balance in each without too much trouble (or higher math - which is by far not my best talent!)
My daughters have both told me that I need to close one of those accounts, and I ought to have listened. Trouble is, one of those banks is very convenient to me and has branches all over quite a few states, and the other one is limited to the state of North Carolina, so it does me no good when I travel, but I derive benefits from it that are hard to give up. So, it's a quandary I'm in. How to solve the problem???
12 comments:
Don't feel bad, we've all done things like that. I'm afraid to count my senior moments, it's a very high number.
We do everything via online banking, use free bill pay to bills. Recently Mr. Bruce got caught up in publishers clearing house. I know it's a racket, I refused to send the checks online. He mailed paper checks, but first had to find the checkbook.
My maths is worst than yours, so I am no help at all! I hope you get the issue sorted out quickly!
After going through both accounts, it seems that neither one is overdrawn, although I don't see how that is possible. I'll call the banks tomorrow and see what the true balances are. Oy.
My motto is keep it simple.
I share a cheque book with MTL but never use it. Its difficult enough keeping tabs on my own and he always has cash when I need it.
I would close that one that serves you only in NC. I can understand the confusion, my dear...So...I'm with Pat...Simplify--and to hell with the Benifts. Better to be able to sleep at night without having to do Math in your sleep...(lol).
I just have one checking account and one savings account -- I couldn't handle more than that!!
I hope you get it straightened out!
I use plastic or 'real' money/cash for purchases. I do have a chequebook, but only use it about once a year.
That would be easy enough to do. You will get it straightened out, and, hopefully there are no penalties. Maybe you could do Debit only for the most often used account, and checks only for the other?
We are like Grannymar. We use credit cards or cash for all our purchases outside the home and online. We write very few checks since we even pay our credit card balance online. We do not own debit cards and believe they are "of the devil".
Call the bank(s) in question and tell them of your dilemma. If you've been a good and loyal customer, they will often work with you to waive fees, help you with the balance, etc. You'll get it worked out - I know you're a smart cookie!
I write a check for my church offering and that's about it - I use debit and credit for everything else (and try to pay off the credit card when the bill comes.) That works for me.
Golly - when I used to use a check book only, I made a huge error in my bank balance once and was writing checks left and right and got significantly overdrawn. You can imagine the overdraft fees for that. I still break a sweat thinking about that.
Are the checks for both accounts the same color? Order checks for the lesser account in yellow to remind you to use caution in writing checks on that account.
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