Ally, Bank fees and Cat fund, OSAP

Yesterday I got a call from Ally for a status update on my account. It turns out that they have disqualified my cheque because I did not write out "five cents." So they decided the the dollar amount was different form the numerical number on the cheque. For 5 cents I have spent the last 3 months  trying to send them money. The first time I had an issue I called them and asked very specifically how they wanted the check written out and I was told that I had written it correctly. Clearly I have been lied to. So I have decided to cancel my account. Let me explain why:

1) the reason that I opened the account was for the wrong reason.

Explanation: when I decided on my 10% fund it was to replace the fact that I had not signed up for the Defined Contribution retirement option at work. So this money was to be invested into retirement plans of some sort. However I have moved the money around for my car fund last month and then decided to convert it to a down payment fund for a house. This is why I opened up the Ally account. The major reason for this is that I had no idea how to invest for retirement. But I have been reading lots of books on the topic and I decided how I will plan for my retirement. As a result there is no need for this fund and I would have been using the money for the wrong reasons. As much as I really really want my own place until my debt has been reduced there is not a hope in hell of that happening.

On December 31 my bank took money out of my account for bank fees $9.95. I am not all that happy about that but I agreed to it so say-lave. 

I had to get more cat medication $64.43 today. This brings my cat fund down to $39.91. I booked the cats, both of them in for vet aptms in April. This will be around  $150 each plus $30 for stool sample testing. God willing I hope to have enough money to cover this from my cat fund but at the rate I am going through it, who knows. Sigh. 

My first of many letters form OSAP came in today. Over the last 6 months of 'free period' from Sept. 1 -Feb 1 I will have accumulated $308.46 of interest. This can be paid in a lump sum with my first payment  or it can be added to my overall total. Ideally I would rather pay it upfront but given that it is due at the end of February I do not think I will be able to do that.  As such I opted to add it to my overall student debt balance. In September I put in lump sum amount of $3,000 which was summer OSAP I had left over.  This brings my overall OSAP down to $10, 410.46 (including the $308.46). This amount of money is stretched out over a 114 month repayment period. My monthly payments to OSAP starting in February will be $117.45.

It would would be ideal to be able to put pay more them the min. monthly payment. And this is my over all goal. But I have decided that my goal of $15,000 debt reduction will be focused on my line of credit. For 2 reasons: 1) when the first real payment comes through I will be paying interest  + principle and if I don't focus on bring the principle down the payment will be painfully high. 2) I get a tax credit for the interest in my OSAP which for now I will need to bring my into a lower tax bracket to max my income return.  I can make lump payments to OSAP at any time so when I have my TD line at a manageable amount I will increase my payments to OSAP.  

The Woes of Good Intentions and Bank Fees

In my last post I mentioned that was going to start a snowflake jar. So knowing that I had about $24 in my account by the 30th I strove to not spend anything till the end if the day. Or the next day (the 1st) because I knew I would be paid on the 2nd of December. So imagine my surprise after work on the 31st when my account went from $24 to $ -92.89 over night. I immediately called the bank and told the lady who answered the phone straight up I was up sent and pissed off. The lady was very professional and by the end over 1.5h call things were completely sorted out.

Your likely wondering how does one go from being in the black to being in the red over night. Trust me I wanted to know the same thing.

This is what happened: on my bank account plan I was only 'allowed' up to 15 transactions a month. However I thought this was at the bank/bank machine transactions. Well apparently it also includes online transactions. Needless to say I ALWAYS go over that number. Last month I did 55 transactions between moving money around to paying bills. This number is average for me, but because I was a student I never got charged the extra $0.65 for each additional transaction because on top of my 'everyday account' I had the 'student plan' except this expired at the end of this past month and I did not go into renew it because I am no longer a student. As a result I was changed $14.35 plus $2.00 passbook update. Had it only been $16.35 I might not have been as upset but $24-16.35 does not = $ -92.89 and that is a lot of money to be in the red!! As it turns out the night before (Dec. 29th) I was doing mobile banking and I was transferring money out of my chequeing account that I had put in for a 'just incase' but really belonged in my general savings fund. What we concluded was that there was a glitch in the system and on two separate instances it transferred out $100.00 . So between the bank fees and the extra $100 being taken out of my checking account I definitely ended up in the red.

The lady at the bank reversed everything and gave me back the $16.35 and in the process I signed up for a new bank account plan which gives me 200 transactions a month for $9.95. I know some people might think its money wasted. But I have 8 accounts with them and like I said I am always moving money around or paying bills. One of the ways I curb impulse buying is I never keep money in my chequing account. When I need to spend money I move it from my 'holding account.' The down side to all this stuff is that she said it would take a few days for the bank to approve the return of money and to reset the system online.

Now that a couple of days have passed I am able to start making official snowflake deposits.

What did I learn from this: Always keep an eye on your finances and know the amount of money in your accounts.