Mental Meanderings

Stupid ****ing Bank/Credit Union

Ok, so many of you who've been reading for the past month or two know that I've recently (January, Wow! nearly 6 months) separated from my husband. I had trouble finding a rental property for me and our two young children so ended up deciding to buy the home Paul and I had lived in from Paul. Put in a home loan application with my Credit Union (with whom I do all my banking) and was accepted.

Anyway, there was a lot of delay on getting the application through and then more delay with court papers and title transfers etc. So it took about four months to get that sorted out but I signed the papers on the 24th of May, settled on the 31st, financed on the 8th of June. House belongs to me.

Well apparently because it wasn't a sale it was just a transfer to title the conveyencing people didn't notify Rates, Water etc. so Paul gets a bill for rates and wonders why he's bouncing payments (they closed all his bank accounts when they finalised the loan on my payment to him, basically I paid his mortgage and took the burden soley in my name, but without a housing loan he no longer had any accounts so he no longer has any bank lol it was a hilarious dilemma at the time, especially since the payout wasn't correct and I still owed him $1000 for the sale of the house.)

Anyway, so I go up to the rates office to explain that Paul no longer owns the house and that I will now be paying the rates and water payments etc. They've got no notice of a transfer of land so they don't think I exist. AHHHH anyone else pulling their hair out yet? The told me to call up conveyencing and get them to fax through proof of sale. I called the bank they give me the whole line of no it wasn't an official sale so we aren't responsible for doing that, you gave us a few hundred dollars to put your name on the title instead of his but that's all.

Well I played the clueless blonde card on them and they caved, deciding to save us both a lot of trouble and fax it through to DOLA (Department of Land) office. Apparently that still takes a few weeks to become official because it sits on a desk in the DOLA offices before anyone does anything with it. But hopefully before the July 1st that will be done (fingers crossed because if it isn't done by then I pay full rates and water but if it's done before then my government parenting pension gives me a discount).

So, another banking dilemma hopefully dealt with. Meanwhile I'm still waiting on my new card in the mail thinking excitedly that I'm taking another step towards full independence, my very first credit card. I got my pin at the beginning of the week and today the card arrived in the mail. I open it excitedly looking forward to seeing the shiny silver VISA printed on it. NO VISA!!! I've been send a debit card with no credit access. My account is a credit account now and while I can access it from a debit card as a savings account it costs be about a $1 every time I do so.

I call up the bank and explain that I understood my new card being issued would be a Visa card as I now needed a Visa to make use of my Equityline credit account. "No sorry ma'am, there is no note of that here and you have not been approved. We insist on three months history with our bank." "Oh, oh, but I have that, this account is new but I've been with the bank for years and the equityline was a transfer from my ex-husbands account to mine." "Oh I understand, well there is no not of a visa approval, I'm affraid you will have to put in an application."

GGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I've been waiting patiently for the card because I have a couple of bills on my list to be paid that need a visa. Once again I'm going to have to depend on someone else to use their card on my behalf. And I've been excited about signing up for Ancestry and ordering those genealogy certificates but I can't do that now either.

Why do banks, even credit unions, trail you around this? It's the sort of bullshit that makes me want to take my business elsewhere. Of course every bank is as bad as each other and to refinance my loan a week after it was finalised is going to cost me another $1000 in fee's. I think that's why they play games with you. They've got you by the balls once you owe them money.

Oh well. Off to buy a printer this afternoon I think. I can at least have enough independence to be able to print the application form off myself. I'd been putting off the purchase of that until I could see if my finances held up after paying for the genealogy items but since those aren't on the menu for the moment I can definately manage a new printer.

Hopefully so retail therapy at Harvey Norman this afternoon will help my mood. Sorry for such a long ranting post today but I had to let off steam and this journal is great for that. Especially since I know you are all bursting to jump in with condolences and commiserations.