Before I went to the South Pacific I called my credit card company and told them I would have charges from Guam to Micronesia To Polynesia to Indonesia. I didn't want them thinking someone else was having a nice vacation on my credit card.
My bank did call one day to inform me that as my savings account and checking account was getting up there I was eligible for all kinds of free services, I told them to go ahead and load me up with all I could get---as long as it was free. Big disappointment as no free toaster was included.
As an after thought I asked the female caller for the balances in both accounts and by golly she gave them to me .
CRAP, I could have been the maid, a babysitter or a neighbor who answered the phone while I was in the bathroom. The bank was giving out our financial info. to anyone who answered the phone and said it was me.
Disturbing thing is Hubby stopped at the bank after work on the next day it was open and spoke with some manager to ask why someone from the bank would call us, HE/SHE told him that far as she knew this was not being done and someone must have been " playing a joke on us "
In this day and age she just dismissed the call and did not offer to put a flag on our accounts .
Problem the banks hire kids right out of high school at close to minimum wages. Slow times the tellers do other things, answer the phones and make appointments for different managers or even random call to invite people to use their bank.
These youngsters have little idea of the privacy laws and unless your accounts are flagged for a password anyone you write a check to can call and using your name and the numbers on the bottom of the check can call them and get info. on how much you have in your account.
Had a problem with deposit slips in the back of a check book not so long ago, woman meeting a guy in a bar was asked for their phone NO. and for some reason the girls would pull out the empty slip and put their phone NO. on the back. The guys would use the information NO. on the bottom and find a way to get into their account.
Oh the Scams, just for the hell of it, call your bank and find out how hard or easy it is to get information about your account over the phone. Tell them you are Handy capped or unable to come in the bank, say you're in the hospital, any excuse.
Still waiting here, Hubby says I am Paranoid, I tell him Paranoia is a survival instinct and those that are not are the ones that do not lock their doors and they yell when they are robbed.
Am I paranoid because I keep a fire extinguisher in both kitchen and furnace room, have both smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in my home, own a few weapons just in case, check the air in my tires on the Jeep or the oil ?
So we most of us do this, but when do we check our finances to insure they are safe ? Banks only cover your money to a point. The FICA ? is insurance the bank gets to cover your money, I know from family that if the bank manager does not pay the insurance premiums and he runs off with all the money, it takes years to get the money back if ever.
Mom got a huge bunch of flowers from her bank, seems records were lost and without her knowledge her safety deposit box was broken into to find the owner. Had she not had documents with her name and address on them, just family jewelry , or bronze baby shoes, she could have lost all.
Had she saved money in bill form for 80 years, the IRS would be have been at her door. How to prove taxes had been paid on saved money starting in 1938 ?????
I see why people put money in mason jars and buried it in the garden, today with interest rates, may be the best idea, not the paper money but the coins, one can steal $500.00 in paper money in a pocket but it becomes difficult to lug off that amount of money in half dollars or quarters.
Way things are going with Obama may not be a bad idea to stock up on those gold dollars that come from vending machines. We had one a coin changer at work, put in $10.00 bill and get 10 gold coins, good as USA money anywhere. I started saving them and found when I emptied my pockets at the end of the day just dumped them in a big pickle jar with the nickel and dimes, it began to add up. Surprising what amount of money adds up from pocket change every day.
Money is just money in paper form, when one looks at it in coin form, it becomes more real, so protect it find the loopholes in the banking system.
