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Thursday, August 27, 2020

The bank, the post office, park management and me and us

 How do you pay bills these days? Once all was paper, and the checkbook was balanced religiously, monthly. Then I got a new computer, maybe five years ago, and it all changed--for the better.

Another blogger explained to this accountant (albeit with TBI), how to live without a check book. Just let go. As I no longer had a checkbook on the computer, and would never keep a paper checkbook again, I let go.

 I've put in place a desk pad jot method to be sure I don't overdraft the bank before month end. Voila. Home free.

Until the administration began its slow strangle on the post office. Ballots are not the only envelope through the post office. Bill payments are, too.

I've had a light bulb go off about all the companies that collect their money electronically, directly if possible. The cell phone. Internet and television access. Utilities. I think about the electric bill. I switched to paperless. Yea for me, good, tidy citizen.

Every month they noodged me. Stop it with the check you write on your bank account, for the bank to mail to us. Just switch to direct debit! And I did. 

Now I only write one check each month, on my bank's "Pay Bills" app, to the trailer park. There are other stragglers; once a year to my accountant, annually for insurance, quarterly for trash service, and so on (though most of them would like my checking account number, too).

I've had to learn too much about how my fine bank operates. I had to overcome obstacles even to get to someone who knows. My local bank has been closed for the duration of Covid, though I am told it will reopen.

My bank has few stand alone locations in this area. Basically, one in each major locality and the rest are in supermarkets. Brilliant? I don't know. Brilliant for some. My next closest branch, to call and talk to, caters to a large immigrant population, Spanish and Asian. 

I've stood in line while the manager, or a clerk, patiently, and often in another language, helps a non-English speaking person navigate an American check. I've never felt inconvenienced; I'd appreciate someone helping me. Until the coin flips, and the manager cannot understand my question.

How can I know when this check you write is mailed? Where can I read it in your instructions? The manager turned me over to a teller who was too busy to talk and never called me back.

I want to know because a check the bank dated August 7 is received by the park manager on the 24th, who assured me it was the post office and there would be no late charge, honey.

This is the third month in a row. And the bank tells me the checks are mailed three days before the date, to arrive on the date of the check.

Low level rumbling, including me, blames it on the park manager. This is basically a well run park, because, like decent citizens, we manage ourselves and help each other.  And it's time for me to stop blaming the manager, the bank and the post office.

Our government is making it difficult to deliver the mail on time.

I must write an article for the next Community News. I have my personal plan for making my ballot count. I will vote early. There are many other ways, including mail in ballots, also known as absentee voting, legal in every state. But I think we will need to know how to learn our ballot is received and ready to be counted.

This post has been a thinking through process. Thank you for listening. I need to write that article now.



43 comments:

  1. I plan on early voting too. That feels safest and surest to me.
    I remember when ATM's changed everything. Boy- that was a million years ago. I wonder what will come next?

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  2. I just checked online and PA has no early voting, unlike Ohio. I voted by mail for the primary and had planned to do so in November, but now I'm re-thinking it. It is SO wrong what is happening to our Post Office. You always have such interesting and thoughtful posts, thank you!
    And I made crostata (peach) this past week - delicious! I think apple next, perhaps.
    Mary

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  3. I like online payments, but am now finding that ATMs do not necessarily accept my debit cards so have to hunt for those which do,
    I haven't been able to vote for anyone for years now...being a foreigner but elelctions still work me uo. Those buggers have their hands on my future.

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  4. I have paid my bills electronically for many years now. But I pay them all through my bank so I do not have to give the different business accounts access to my bank account. My bank has a bill pay online app where I list everyone I pay every month. I just go to that app and choose an account (such as electric bill) and enter what I want to pay and send. It's all in one place, fast and easy. The bank gives me the date it will be paid.
    I must admit, I have not yet let go of the checkbook even though I seldom write a check.

    You go get 'em with your article for the Community News. You are a good citizen Joanne!

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    Replies
    1. Is it paid by mail? You might want to check on when the payee gets the check.

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    2. Surely the electronic payments go through ELECTRONICALLY (i.e. not through the post). I pay all my bills electronically, but I personally give the instructions electronically as and when I'm ready to pay. It's not direct debit, but it is electronic. Sometimes I pay early, just to get it out of the way. I haven't seen a cheque in years.

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    3. Almost all of my payments through the bank go through electronically as long as the company being paid is set up for that. I only have one bill that is not paid electronically through the bank because they are a private owned trash company and not set up for electronic payments. My bank mails them a check and it does take several days to get to them but it has never been late.

      Your park manager is probably not set up to receive automatic electronic payments so the bank has to mail a bank check. I would not think it would take over a week at the most though.

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    4. it sounds like the same bill pay system I have here, called Bpay and each company has their own unique number, so it's not a direct debit system but payments made by me to the company concerned. Much better in my opinion although I do have one direct debit in place.

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  5. We have had mail in voting up here for years. I liked going to the polls though, it was a nice social event.Small town stuff. Yes, vote early, and often, as they say.
    We still use the checkbook for things, familiar, easy to keep track of. Some auto pay bills get screwed up

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  6. I am getting an absentee ballot (already requested) and will hand it in in person.
    I pay all utilities automatically and pretty much everything else with citicard and pay that bill in person once a month. Lots of charities I pay automatically with paypal monthly.

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  7. We pay all our utility bills by direct debit, and the car tax too. A couple of memberships go by PayPal.

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  8. We pay everything on-line these days. I rarely go to the bank anymore.

    Good luck with the article, Joanne.

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  9. Colorado has had mail in voting for years. They also have many drop off locations where, for example, you can safely deposit your ballot in the box. There is a bar code on the envelope that allows you to track your ballot to be sure it was received and recorded. Every state should be able to do this. No excuse!

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    Replies
    1. Colorado always has been progressive. My state, and many others want that last bit of control, and we ignore the needless power and authority until it discomforts us.

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  10. Hubby pays the bills (through the bank website) and everything gets where it needs to be on time.

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  11. We are having 'issues' with our mail too. The postal service says that they are overloaded because of Covid 19, Their solution? They will only deliver mail every second day. A change which I suspect will be permanent. And will not benefit the individual.
    I do hope you will share that article when you have finished.

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    Replies
    1. And what was their excuse before Covid-19?? Hmmm?

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  12. I do quite a bit of direct debit, but I have to keep a checkbook because my chimney and vent ckeaners and my plumbers and handyman won't use credit cards. And you don't always know ahead how much a job will cost. There's a daily limit on cash withdrawals from my ATM. Di a check is the way.

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  13. Pretty much all of our bills are paid online these days, too. I keep a check book still for emergencies but writing a check is a rarity these days. I think it's shameful what's going on with the post office and I hope it will be corrected if/when Biden wins the election.

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    Replies
    1. Jennifer, will you vote on election day in your precinct? That will secure your vote!

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    2. Gregg and I plan to vote early, in person, at the beginning of October.

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    3. Excellent. And do forgive me for being bossy.

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  14. So, not di! Big fingers small screen.

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  15. We pay using bill pay at our bank also. If the bills aren't being paid on time due to the post office probs, we haven't gotten any late notices? I actually thought the bank paid them electronically, not by mail - but I guess not.

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  16. Yes, one day (probably quite soon) cheques will be quite obsolete.

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  17. Utilities are direct debit to the checking account, which gives me a mild case of the willies. But if you can't trust power, water and gas, who can you trust? We still write checks to the guys that fix the sprinkler system so they don't have to bear the merchant fees. AZ tells you when your mail in ballot arrives and where it is in the process. What I would like to know is if they're counting when they arrive or is it all on election day? When McSally lost to Sinema, we didn't have results for about a week, due to mail ins, so I guess that tells us they don't pre-count. Which seems stupid. Please post a link to your article when it's done.

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    Replies
    1. I doubt any state can start counting before the polls close. That's fine with me. I called our Board of Elections about tracking the absentee ballot and was told the only way to verify receipt is if my name is ticked off as having voted. So, if they don't get it, I'd only know after the count was done if I'd voted.

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  18. I still pay way too many bills by mail which has become a concern. I will vote early and drop it in a voting box, versus mailing it. We do all vote by mail here--which wasn't any concern before NOW. :(

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  19. I've voted by mail for years--never doubted that my vote got counted. As for checks, I just got a fresh supply of checks in the mail today. I have all but a couple of bills on autopay. I just changed my citicard bill to paper as it's the only credit card I use anymore and I go online and pay it from the checking account. But I pay the housekeeper by check, so I do need some checks. I tried bill paying through the bank, but all they did was send a check and I could do that so I didn't feel like it was saving me anything. The concern that the check might not reach the creditor in time was a worry for me so I only tried the online bill paying thing once.

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    Replies
    1. The bank sends a check? It should be electronic, they key in the numbers, money gets shifted.

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  20. Everything is pretty much paid online these days. I always like (when churches were open) to write a check for our tithe and put it in the offering. It was symbolic more than anything. Our yet to be reopened church I would do it when they were opened but they wouldn't cash the checks right away and I didn't like that so I started giving online; they got the money quicker I felt.

    Voting early in person when the polls open up.

    betty

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  21. Your election worries me as it seems that there is good chance thinkg will not work very well.

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  22. Hari OM
    I have been doing electronic banking for so long now I can't recall when last I ever saw a cheque. It's about time the park mngmnt came up to date and accepted electronic payments too - it really isn't that hard! Anyway, you have proven your ability to adapt and it is very admirable indeed! YAM xx

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  23. Gone are the days when you ordered fun or elegant looking cheques for your chequing account. We write a cheque for snow removal, and honestly I can't think of anything else that requires a cheque. Automatic debit is our main way of paying bills. -Jenn

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  24. I've never had a cheque book in my life. Before internet I paid my bills by taking the mailed account to the post office and paying it there, I was issued a receipt for the amount, stapled it to the account and filed it once I got home. The Post Office was responsible for making sure the money went where it was supposed to go.
    Now my internet charge comes out of my bank account by direct debit and utilities are paid by a Bpay system. on the back side of each mailed account is a "Bpay number" unique to that provider and I can enter that number on the "payments and transfers" page of my online bank account, then enter the amount to be paid, click on "confirm" then note down the number of the electronic receipt in my exercise book that I use to keep track.
    Can you get a petition with all park citizens signatures and a strong suggestion that the manager switch to electronic payments?

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    Replies
    1. There is no authority locally, but I will contact headquarters in New Jersey and suggest that.

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  25. The money goes through electronically, disappears from my account and shows up in theirs. No paper, no post office delays, easy peasy.

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  26. And to think I mistakenly thought America was a democratic country. How naive am I?

    LX

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  27. My wife has an ETSY business and her deliveries to the US are now averaging ten to fourteen days longer than previously. Irate customers tend to blame the seller, but if course there is nothing she can do to influence speedy delivery via USPS. In general a package to Australia is arriving earlier than a package to Michigan or New York right across the border,

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  28. I am not sure when I wrote my last paper cheque. I think there's one charity that we support annually that I can't pay electronically. I must say though that I hadn't heard of electronic cheques until now. I just pay at the appropriate time.

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  29. Early this year (before Covid), my state, PA, passed a bill that allowed all people to vote by mail. Now I am reading that the state senate (Republican) is fighting with the Governor ( Dem) to not allow drop boxes. They want to make it more difficult for us to vote.

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  30. A several weeks ago I went online and printed out the mail-in absentee ballot application for my local election board. Filled it out, signed it and returned it by mail. What did I get yesterday? From the local board of elections--a blank mail-in absentee ballot application--not the absentee ballot. Did these things cross each other in the PO (I even drove to the PO with the same zip code as the BoE so the mail wouldn't have to be transferred)? Did the mail sit next to each other long enough to have a conversation about how f'd up things are these days? If I don't receive the absentee ballot, I'll show up for early voting...though they will probably then ask me for my absentee ballot. Such is government under the @ssh0le.

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