Wednesday, August 04, 2010

That time someone had to teach me how to get inside the bank...

No joke, Kids.  My co-worker had to show me how to get into the bank because it's a tricky little devil.  I've always been the kind of person that goes into the bank, walks up to a teller, says, "Hey, how are you today?!" and gets a little face time.  So the idea of using the ATM to deposit money not only seemed like an alien idea to me, but I also don't trust those machines to read the check write. And what would I do if a check said 420.00 and it read 4.20... you know?! There's no security in that.  But now I'm a big girl in the big city, and not only did it take me about two weeks to even FIND my bank branch, but I also don't have time to go by during normal business hours.  So I weighed my options and decided that other friends have had success depositing money through the ATM, so maybe it wasn't really the devil trying to eat my humble dollars for lunch.

One night at about 7:30pm, I walked the nine blocks to my bank and tried to open the door to the ATM room, but it was locked.  Okay, maybe they don't let you use them off hours, I thought. Although there was a man inside but he was standing around all awkwardly so I thought maybe he had just gotten off work and was waiting for his co-workers to exit as well so they could lock up for good (seems reasonable, no?)  About a week later, I was leaving work with a co-worker (who's lived in Queens all her life) and as we made our way towards the train station she asked if it would be cool if she stopped by the bank.  "Sure!" I said.
Then proceeded to tell her how I had been trying to find the time to get to my own branch for weeks and I desperately needed to go because I had almost an entire month's worth of paychecks that needed to be deposited (so I could give it all away to the lovely people that shelter me, and put me through college.)  I also mentioned to her that it was locked last I went, so it would probably be a waste of time to try again that day, it being after five and all.  To which she replied, "Well, you have a debit card right? Did you swipe it??"
"What do you mean, 'did I swipe it?' I couldn't get through the door, it was locked!" I said.
This is about the point where she stopped and just stared at me with a look of complete shock and hysteria, "There's no way you don't have these anywhere in the South!!" she said, "You just have to swipe your debit card and it unlocks the door!!" WTF?!
Yeah, so APPARENTLY in order to cut down in crime and whatnot, you can't get to any banks ATM unless you have a card. I mean, I was stunned into silence the entire time she showed me this... seriously?! Well that's just genius!! And more over, I could have put this money away weeks ago if only I knew my debit card works much like a hotel key.  Thanks New York... Good one!
At least Melissa got a good laugh out of this....

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