Ironic

First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the awesome comments yesterday on our Debt Free post! And thank you to Amy and Megan for giving me my own little post on your own blogs... you spoil me :)

This morning I get to work and log into my Bank of America checking and savings account like I do every other morning when I get to work. It's my way of starting my day... hitting the switch from "workout diva" (since I've just left the gym usually) to "accountant diva".

I have one checking account and one savings account with them. The checking I use to pay bills mostly and our debit card is attached to it. But the savings account is only there because we have the "Keep the Change" program where it rounds your transactions up and moves the change to savings. There's usually only a few hundred dollars in our savings account "just in case."

Ironically enough, today when I log in, I see my savings account balance is at $0... Hmm... I look at the activity and see they have transferred the entire balance from my savings to my checking for "overdraft protection."

Okay... so I go to my checking account activity and sure enough, I see the money sitting in my checking account now with the description "Tsfr for Overdraft Protection."

What's weird here folks, I did not over draw my account.

So I call the 1-800# and speak to a customer service rep. I ask her why the transfer was done and she replies, "to protect your account from overdraft."

Right... I do understand what "overdraft protection" means... I really do... but where exactly is this overdraft you are so kindly protecting me from?

Of course, I imagine this chick gets hundreds of phone calls from people who actually have overdrawn their account and want her to reverse the fees and yada-yada so I'm sensing a little impatience from her.

She looks in my account. "Oh, that's weird."

Right? So Bank of America decided my $2,000 balance in my checking account was too low and they should probably move my savings balance over too and in the mean time, charge me a $29 fee for "protecting" me from... umm... going below $2,000? Not sure there. (there are no minimums on my checking and I take it much lower than $2,000 all the time...)

They reversed the transfer but I have to call back in a few days to reverse any other charges that hit as a result. But it's a little weird to me that this happened, and ironic that the day after I become debt free, someone tried to mess with me... I wonder how often this happens to people who don't check their account regularly... weird.

Until tomorrow,
Kelsalynn