Deep Thoughts [NOT 9/4/24]

9/4/24 brightersideoflife 23

Hi, friends!

Happy Tuesday!

It’s time for deep thoughts with brightersideoflife.

Why do cashier’s checks take 2-3 days to clear when they’re supposed to have guaranteed funds?

What’s percolating your brain lately?

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23 Comments

  1. …ooh, ooh…I know this one…well…not exactly but in the broad strokes?

    …so…once upon a time it took banks a little while to compare notes & allocate that the money that was in the one account ought to be assigned to the one that deposited the cheque (…I know…but it just looks weird to me when it’s spelt like check mark)

    …iirc they gave themselves 5 business days not so long ago…which was…generally more than enough…but then they got faster communications & eventually were told that more than 3 was taking the piss…even though once we had the swift system & BACS & all that neat shit…well…even one full day is arguably taking the piss

    …but…that’s the fun part…because in most respects a cashier’s cheque is just the same as any other cheque…except they can’t bounce, basically

    …so…it’s your money once it’s deposited…except for those three days when it’s the bank’s to play with…which they do…they loan it or invest it or whatever…which they do with all your money all the time anyway…so…where’s it different?

    …well…until it “clears”…that bit of your money isn’t yours in the sense of being there for you to spend…& they don’t have to calculate so much as pro rata interest…so whatever profit they can turn on it is free to them

    …& 3 day’s interest on even the biggest cheque I’ve ever had made out to me is…basically negligible…like it is for most people

    …but banks have a lot of customers paying in a lot of cheques every day…so…to a bank…that 3day window is basically a free money goldmine…& they’re still pissed they can’t take a week & claim it’s only 5 days?

    • Oh, do not get me started. Highway robbery, it is! Float banking just gnaws on my nerves. There are entire career paths as float management. Apparently it has a similar stress level as does that of careers in arbitrage. The arbitrage folks I knew lived on cocaine, whisky, and a sense of invincibility.

    • Yep!!!

      Learned *this* little nugget of a lesson, back when I was in my 20’s, still banking “back home,” and was able to use anything that went into my account (like a payroll check!), the day it went in.

      While my roommates, who banked at Wells Fargo, and the *then* TCF (now “Huntington Bank”) had to wait 3-5 DAYS to use *their* money…

      And for the one who banked at TCF/Huntington?

      She couldn’t take money out until the deposit “cleared,” EVEN IF she had deposited it as CASH!!!😒🤯😠🤬🤬🤬🤬

      That was when I decided that I was ONLY banking with my piddly-little 5-branch bank up home–even if I had to MAIL my paychecks up there–because the way the other banks were holding on to people’s money (so that *THEY* could make tons of their OWN money off folks NOT having access to their OWN money)was 100% *bullshit*, and an absolute scam being pulled on their “customers”!!!

      *Everything* is *obviously* way easier nowadays, with their mobile app–which allows digital check depositing!

      Even today, two hours from the bank, I can scan in a check to deposit it, and although it *isn’t* as fast to draw the money from the check getting deposited in person, *sometime* between Midnight and 8am when the physical branches open, that money *IS* 100% accessible IN my account and can be used wherever & *however* I want!!!

      The fact that my piddly little 5-brach bank is *STILL* in business–having opened in 1908, and survived the Great Depression,  the Farm Crisis of the 70’s & 80’s, and it’s *still* going strong, 116 years later?

      My Grandparents banked there, Dad’s whole FAMILY has banked there since the 1970’s or before,** and I opened my first savings account there, as a child, back in either the end of the 70’s, or the beginning of the 80’s.

      That was the bank where Barrett, one of the branch managers when I was little *explained* to my classmates and I “How banks make Their Money”–by customers like *US* letting THEM use our money, to give out loans, earn interest, etc.

      He explained that WE should *ALWAYS* have access to our money–because that’s why EVERY ACCOUNT is insured by the FDIC, for up to 100,000 (the amount back then), and that a bank should NEVER tell you YOU can’t have your OWN money, if you aren’t a criminal.

      That talk with a bunch of Kindergarteners *obviously* stuck with some of us–and I’ve EXPECTED banks to be honest with me, ever since.😉

      (**I am now the dorkily-proud *owner* of the account Dad put me on back when I was 18 or so–30+ years ago–of a checking account which is Five YEARS older than *I* am!😉😆😂🤣

      AND that account is *SO OLD*, that it only has a *FIVE DIGIT* account number!🤭🤗😆😂😂😂😂

      I had no idea those even EXISTED, until I was talking to one of the bank clerks (she went to high school with my Aunties, has been a friend of our family longer than *I* have been a *PART* of my family😉), and SHE mentioned, “Oh, this is one of the OLD accounts!”🤣

  2. It’s called greed. It’s the same reason why when you write a check it clears out of your account within 48 hours but won’t be credited to the other person’s account for 72. The banks get to float that shit for a few extra pennies.

      • I STILL think of his name as being pronounced the *correct* way (Tuber-like *Potato* tubers! Not like wash tubs!), EVERY time I read it!😉

        He will *forever* be “Tommy Too-brrrr-ville”, not “Tommy Tub-brrr-ville”😈😈😈

    • You know, I’m always fine with someone having a vacation home. Maybe one day I’ll have one if I get hit by a company car but don’t die and get a payout.

      But wow this is just ridiculous. Carpetbagger, indeed.

  4. They do the same thing for 529 plan withdrawals for tuition payments. It’s one multibillion dollar institution transferring to another but there’s a 72 hour delay for it to be credited. I wouldn’t be surprised if colleges have negotiated faster transfers for themselves, but they delay final approval to bump up the number of late fees they can charge by some small percentage.

  5. It turns out I can make my management say the one thing they really don’t want to say which is “I’m sorry.”

    This weekend we had some issues. One of them was the previous guy forgetting to follow the instructions on the document. I sent a follow up email which listed all the corrections. No good deed gets unpunished around here as I was also reamed out .

    I replied back defending myself and got an oops sorry reply.

  6. Saw an unfortunate license plate on the way home:

    DATY 089

    Laughed like a 12 year old kid (or Adam Sandler fan) who discovered sex acts on Urban dictionary when I initially saw it I thought the number was 20 lower.

  7. Nothing *important* percolating in my brain, really… but I DO fiiiiiiinally have more than just a couple of *ideas* rolling around again, and  *sustained* energy, for the first time, in literally YEARS, and soooooo much less stress & “ugggggggh!!!!” in my brain & my life, now that I FINALLY have everything out of the old apartment, and don’t have to live with *or* deal with the Boy-roommate evvvvvver again!🤗😃🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

     

    I’m officially off the lease, I got all my stuff out of the last apartment we’d been put into after we had the sprinkler line break, and I give back my fob and can be 100% DONE-done, tomorrow afternoon!

    The new apartment is *barely* navigable, at the moment, because I have SO MANY boxes in here…

    BUT, I fiiiiiinally have the ENERGY *and* enough focus, to start doing the big sort that I’ve NEEDED to do, and pare down, weed out, *condense*, and ORGANIZE things!

    About a week and a half after I’d moved myself, my bed, and *most* of my things in here, I basically COLLAPSED mentally/emotionally, and went into “hibernate mode.”

    I was absolutely EXHAUSTED every day, at about 8-9 pm, and was falling *ASLEEP* between 8:30 and 10:30 every night, then sleeping until I HAD to get up at 7 am.

    It wasn’t until we had the *second* incidence of the building fire alarms getting pulled after midnight–and I GOT to work that day, *without* having adrenaline dumps or panic attacks, that my brain *FINALLY* shoved thoughts out of my subconscious and into the *conscious* and aware part of my brain, to PROCESS exactly *why* I’d been crashing so hard, and sleeping for 10+ hours on weekdays, and nearly ALL of the weekends…

    For the last 5 years, *whenever* something happened, fire alarms,  emergencies, etc, I was basically the only able-bodied person in our old apartment, to DEAL with the crisis, and make SURE that my girl-roommate didn’t *need* to evacuate ASAP, and potentially plan the logistics to evacuate her🙃

    Because, for the last FIVE years, *every* time anything happened?

    Boy-roommate (her fiancee!), would go into an Anxiety spiral, dissappear to go smoke some weed, THEN a cigarette or two, *THEN* come back to help his fiancee🙃🫠

    He’d also leave *me* to get *BOTH* Lily (when I had her), *AND* THEIR CAT rounded up, and into the cat carrier, to go out.

    And, I realized later on in the day after that second alarm getting pulled at 1:30am, and getting up getting myself dressed, and then grabbing Dad’s ashes & Lily’s, then locking the new apartment and going outside, that so much of my stress levels the last few YEARS, have been because of that dumbass’ complete failure & falling apart in stressful or crisis situations, *in addition* to his inabilities to clean up any damn spills/messes, do the damn dishes regularly, OR put it the goddamned BASIC maintenance requests, for us to live in a habitable apartment.

    Apparently after I moved out of the old place at the end of JANUARY?!?

    The kitchen sink *stopped draining*–and he JUST LEFT IT LIKE THAT!!!

    When I got there late last week, there was 4″+ of SKANKY, BROWN, slimy, STINKY disgustingly chunky water, with nasty dirty dishes still in there, too…

    And the dishwasher had 4″ of BLACK disgustingly stinky water pooled in the bottom.🤢🤢🤢

    The whole kitchen STUNK, y’all, SOOOOOO bad!!!

    And since I *didn’t* create that swanky water, I DIDN’T TOUCH IT.

    I got my stuff I’d forgotten out of the fridge (mostly tossed it!), but I decided I’m DONE cleaning alllllllll the damn SPILLS that man makes & never wipes up (I washed the OLD fridge SO many times, because he’d spill *something* sticky from the top shelf, onto *everything* below–leaving a MASSIVE spot of “sticky grossness” gluing *my* food to the bottom shelf, above the drawers.

    And I’m just DONE cleaning up his damn messes & spills–on the floor, the stove, the sink, the fridge, *WHEREVER*, I’m DONE.

    So I offered to vacuum the loft, stairs, & my bedroom.

    I told the building manager about the stopped-up sink, the manky, skanky, STINKY water, the non-draining dishwasher, the missing & broken parts of that fridge (missing when we moved in!), the fact that the range hood’s light doesn’t turn off, unless the hood is *entirely* unplugged, and allllll the other small maintenance items I discovered as I cleaned my bathroom & bedroom, and moved my stuff out, and then I just IGNORED that useless paperweight of a human being.

    That *apparently* made him mad, too!😈🤭😆😂🤣, because on Saturday he *tried* to create a *dramaaaaatic scene!* when my friend came over to see about taking our old couch…

    It was *HILARIOUSLY* childish, y’all–*so* like 4th-5th grade *DRAAAAAAMA!!!* that it was *all* I could do, not to splutter-laugh about it, as he walked away from us😆😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    I haven’t felt *THIS GOOD,* or this FREE of stress and bullshit, since *BEFORE* the pandemic!😃🤗😁💖

    I’m SO relieved, soooooo much less stressed, and even though I’m staring at SO much to do?

    I fiiiiiiinally DON’T have brain-fog, and since Sunday Morning, have *LITERALLY* gotten MORE things accomplished each day, than I have on *any* random SINGLE day, of the last 4-5 YEARS!😉😁🤗💖💞💝

     

      • I think there are *at least* two of them out there, unfortunately!😉😂🤣

        Thanks, though!

        I’m honestly *SO* much happier than I was, living at the old place–I could practically *feel* the weight drop off my shoulders, as I walked OUT of the old building to come home to the new place, each of the three days that I spent over there this past weekend (*MOST* of that time was honestly spent waiting around for the friend who was hoping to take the couch!😉)

        I realized being in the old building, just how *loud* that building is–alllll the street noise, the former Boy-roommate being an angry-yeller, and now there’s TONS of road construction.

        In the new place, I’m just a bit away from a fire station, but since my new building was built in the 1960’s?

        It’s a night & day difference, in the amount of “noise” that you can hear once you’re inside.

  8. I don’t understand the point of the Do Not Call/Text list. It clearly doesn’t stop anyone. 99% of the callers/texters are spammers or scammers so we need a better way.

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