Bank on It!

Here is a way to inject adventure and drama into your life--go to the bank! Doing banking business used to be a pretty mundane event, some might even say boring. Ha! Not these days! The officers of our financial institutions must sit up at night thinking of new surprises for us. Maybe it's a covert physical fitness operation to increase our heart rates, to get our blood moving, to increase our lung capacity as we shout undecipherable sputterings upon leaving the building.

The ingenuity and, quite frankly, stealthiness in relieving us of our hard-earned funds is quite amazing. Perhaps you have encountered some of the following: an increasing list of service fees, ever-changing ways to put "holds" on your funds for ever-increasing amounts of time, a variety of new fees for a variety of "questionable" services, and new reasons why previously offered services can no longer be provided. Isn't it surprising way the way that even if you have direct deposit and your deposit and various check payments arrive on the same day--guess what gets accomplished first, in the order of "largest amount first" which can introduce you to the ever popular "Surprise, your in overdraft" game. Deposit a money order lately? Welcome to the world of a 48-hour wait after purchase, calls to validate that this is not a forgery, and tellers looking at you suspiciously.

These are only a few of the new financial management adventures in store for you. Banking institutions, in bygone years, were the solid foundation that our communities were built upon. They were considered beyond reproach--honest, forthright, run by solid citizens. Banks were there to help you increase your investment. Not,become the banking equivalent of the Dyson vacuum, that never loses suction, inhaling any and all available money. Remember the way it used to be? Not lately! Anyone have a blood-pressure monitor handy...sigh!?