Come The Revolution...

... our local council, my bank (but less so) and the w***ers at TV Licensing will be first against the wall!

Okay, starting the saga with the bank... I checked my online banking today, and it said there was a charge for an "unpaid item" at £19.50. Now, I knew nothing about any items unpaid, so I phoned them to ask what it was. They told me "It's your TV licence... they tried to take a payment yesterday, and there wasn't enough money in the account, cause you only got your wages in today."

So this leads me on to my rant against TV licensing... I set up to make payments by direct debit, and I had to make 4 payments of something like £30-odd, starting in January and ending this month... and then from next month it would be regular payments of £11-odd every month.

For the last 3 months, the payments have come out on the 2nd of every month. But I've been April Fooled... because this month they decided they would try to take it on the first!

So I went home at lunchtime and tried to phone TV Licensing to see if I could make a card payment so that I would clear the unpaid payment, and I would know that the money had come off my account. But, oh no... because their system hasn't actually been told that the payment wasn't collected yet, they can't take a card payment... so I have to phone back on Monday or Tuesday once they've sent me a letter to tell me that the payment bounced!

Then there's the council... I sent my flatmate to pay the rent. It's the first week of the new financial year, and I knew that the rent had gone up, but I couldn't remember by how much... except I knew it was now £53-something. So she explained that we couldn't remember the amount, but could the girl check the computer? So the girl checked, and said that we had this week's rent, and a balance of £11-something from last week that hadn't been paid, making £75. Viki told her that we paid £11 last week, as per the letter we had been sent telling us that this was all that was outstanding to the end of the 2008 / 09 year, and could she please check again? So she pushed a couple more buttons and said "It's definitely £75". To which Viki said "No... We paid what we were meant to. Please ask someone else." So the girl got on the phone to the rents section... and the upshot was that their bloody computer still hadn't been updated from last Friday, and we had indeed made the payment, and were only due to pay £53!!!!

These things are sent to try us!

I Love The Co-op!

and a big "thank you" to Piggy's Bankruptcy Site for the information that made this possible:

I'VE GOT A BANK ACCOUNT! Or, at least, I will have in about a week!

I read on Piggy's Blog that he had got a Cashminder account from The Co-operative Bank as a declared bankrupt. So, I gave them a ring this morning, and a very nice guy called Chris took me through the application... and then told me, "Yes, your application has been successful."

So I can get my wages! Whether I'll be able to keep them or not is another matter! And I'll even be able to have a standing order to pay my rent & council tax!

The only downside is that we don't have a branch of the Co-op Bank here, but Chris told me that pay-ins, etc, can all be done through the Post Office... and we've got one of them.

Why am I telling you this in such detail? Because I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't found Piggy's site, and I'm a believer in "Paying It Forward" - meaning that if you are in the same position (declared bankrupt, but still needing an account for your wages to be paid into), and find this post while doing a search with Google or something, then maybe you'll read it and give the Co-op a shot.

I don't guarantee that they'll say "Yes", but it's got to be worth a try!

Nothing To Report...

Well, nothing I WANT to report... so I'm focussing on music and waffle just now.

Maybe you'll hear about the shit stuff with money and decisions to be made and things like that in a couple of weeks (by which time I've got to make a big decision on the money & lack of it front), or maybe you won't...

But on the less-important crap things happening, Harriet is still pissing behind the front door (usually once or twice a week), and the reasonably new ivy plant I bought for work is barely clinging on to life... Julie, I need your green fingers! Do ivys need a little water, or a lot? Coz I watered mine and all the leaves shrivelled up... And do they like sunshine? Or no sunshine? HELP! Before the boss and flunky call in the local undertaker...

Oh, and the really pissing-off thing... I'm being charged over £60 by my bank for an automatic card payment that took me less than £10 over my overdraft limit for about a day... and it was for my broadband that I'd forgotten to cancel... and which I haven't got set up at home yet due to the problem with the phone line I had. So I didn't even HAVE the service I was paying for! Tried to get the bank to waive the charge, but no... my bank are bastards! AND my counsellor was fog-bound in one of the isles on Tuesday, so I didn't even have her to talk things over with!

Anyway, at least the rain's buggered off again, so I'm going to bugger off and walk home (since I can tonight without getting wet... last night I had to use my second-last £2.70 and get a taxi because it was raining... the last £2.70 was to get me to work this morning - Good job pay day is tomorrow).

Ta-ra!

A Bunch of Bankers... Update...

Well, I got to finish work at 2o'clock yesterday, and headed to the Citizens Advice Bureau to see if I could get the first Direct Debit held off for a month, and that's sorted... and then headed to the bank to try and open a new second account, which is going to take 2 - 3 weeks to set up, but should happen... so, at the moment I might have to make payment another way next month, but then - fingers crossed - it should start running smoothly...

In the words of Abba... "Money, money, money... Isn't in the least bit bloody funny..."

Bloody banks! I'm still pissed off...

Million thanks to the local CAB though!

My Bank Are A Bunch Of Wankers!

Oooooooooooo.... I am SOOOOO pissed off today, you would not believe!

For the last 4 weeks, I've been paying £65 a week from my main account to a second account I have... and I gave the company who are taking care of my debt management scheme that account number so that they could set up a Direct Debit every month. Well, today I went into my bank and asked for a balance on the second account... I handed over my bankcard, and they told me "That account's been closed... Central processing have taken a couple of those £65's to pay off the overdraft and a bit of arrears..." (caused by their charges) "... and they've closed the account."

Result - not only is there no money in that account for the debt company to take next Thursday... but there's no bloody account for them to take it from! I can't raise enough money in a week for the payment I'm due them.

What the fuck are the bank playing at? They set up the DD, coz I got a letter from the debt company confirming it had been set up... and I had requested a new PIN for the debit / cashline card for that account, as I couldn't remember the original PIN - and it arrived in the post just within the last week... so how can they give me a PIN for a card on a closed account!?

So, tomorrow afternoon I'm finishing work at 2pm, and will spend the afternoon first at the Citizens Advice Bureau, trying a bit of damage limitation and pleading for an extension before the first payment's due, and sorting out what to do as Executor of my Dad's Will... and then at the bank, trying to open a new second account, and finding out what the hell they think they're playing at!

I won't name and shame my bank, but let's just say that Howard's a dead man if ever he offers me Xtra!

Aside from that, the day's just been boring work... with boss and flunky acting like The Chuckle Brothers! Then sorting and clearing more of Mum & Dad's stuff for a while after work... The living room is pretty near done - just the ornaments to get rid of and then a couple of items of furniture that'll get the heave-ho as well.

Well, that's about all... I'm going to bed now where hopefully the day can't get any worse!

A Bunch of Bankers...

I went to get money out of the bank yesterday, only to discover that I had about £80 less than I should have!

Went by the bank at dinnertime, and found out why...

I'd been charged £60 for 2 cheques coming out at the same time that made me go over my overdraft limit - £30 per cheque! However, as I pointed out to the adviser, no matter which order the 2 cheques came out in, only the 2nd one actually put me over the limit - so why had they charged me for BOTH?

After an hour spent in the bank, I eventually got £30 back... big wow!

I won't name and shame... this time... but I'll check my bank statements a lot more carefully from now on!