mystery money and bank woes

was over at a site i used to read regularly coz this guy was reporting live from the site of katrina’s disaster area, post katrina, when i found this interesting article.

 

to cut the long story short, citibank fucked up and caused this guy to have to survive on his credit card with no cash whatsoever over the weekend. but i felt this was an interesting article partly because it showcased how a bank as prominent and international as citibank can screw up occassionally, and massively too, and how blogs have come to become such powerful communication tool.

 

the final part to this “interestingness” though, had to be what happened when i was really young and debit cards first started appearing in singapore. i was right on the dot of 16 years old, and they started producing debit cards. i was heavily involved with ebay back then, but having no credit card made it problematic for me. so all i could do was send off cash and pray to god no one cheats me.

 

funny thing there, on a side note, i actually got cheated after i got cards rather than before, but whatever.

 

at that time though, it was a little buggy. one fine day i found myself in a really tight spot. it was a saturday too, like the guy above, and the banks had just closed and so on, being half day of work in singapore on a saturday. my card mysteriously does not recognise i have a savings account, wouldn’t withdraw any money, and singapore doesn’t allow cash out from their atm/eftpos machines.

 

weekend had barely begun, and i was already high and dry. i could have ask my parents for money of course, but i wanted to do my own thing over the weekend, so the paltry allowance i get (5 bux) wouldn’t get me by. usually my own thing doesnt involve parents, so if they aren’t involve they don’t like handing me any money other than my usual daily allowance. that weekend i was intending to go ice skating, swimming, sit by some cafe and have some apple crumble… the works. so 5 bux ain’t cutting it. i needed at least 50 from my damn frozen bank account.

 

i had no other cards, and i got desperate. most shops have a minimum of 20 bux or 10 bux before you can use credit anyways, and this doesn’t include fastfood, the ice rink, small cafes, and the pool, basically whatever i wanted to do over the weekend. so i was TERRIBLY upset and just needed the break from school, homework and home. i didn’t use to stay home this much, heh.

 

so i walked into the supermarket. for those sg people, it was the cold storage in holland V. and i just wandered around, almost in tears. going up and down the building, checking out the antique store, the oxfam (hehehe), the pet shop, and back into the supermarket. walked out and spent my last buck on the toffee by the old ah ma sitting on her little stool outside cold storage, then i saw this woman pushing her grocery cart towards the cashier.

 

something in me snapped. or light up. however you want to put it. i remembered some drama i watched like a month ago or something, and i walked right up to her.

 

“excuse me…”

 

“yes?”

 

i was in my school uniform still, so i guess i looked more like those flag day girls than anything else.

 

“erm, i have a small problem here, i need your help. my card wouldn’t work properly, can i pay for your groceries and you pay me the price in cash please?”

 

the cashier was looking at me suspiciously and the woman did cock an eyebrow at me.

 

“sure”

 

VOILA. money!!!!!

 

hrhrhrhr 

 

i was terribly proud of how i solved that issue, for some reason. and i was terribly happy to have my “timeout” session that weekend. but of course.. i eventually forgot about it over the years. part of the reason i guess, was that it was an embarassing period of my life as well. i mean honestly, who the hell would approach utter strangers with such problems and pray to god they would believe you? and you don’t look too dumb either.

 

but looking back now, i have decided, i actually made it a POSSIBLE way for me to have fun, a NOVEL way to solve an issue (yes i know, it was taken off some dumb show/movie/etc, but still novel since i doubt anyone i knew back then would have done it either.) AND well, i was determined about something for once.

 

to end it off, if anyone’s curious, the mysterious money wasn’t so mysterious after all. something screwed up bank wise, and i was rightfully returned the rights to my account from the card and nothing was charged to me. ^_^ 

technorati tags: bank, bank woes, credit card, problems, solutions, novel ways, strange girl