Sunday, September 4, 2011

High Cost of Being Poor

It's Sunday; tomorrow is Labor Day; I start work on Tuesday. Normally, this would all be good news. But, today I received an email from Mint.com letting me know I had been charged a $10.00 service fee from UW Credit Union. It also informed me that I had received the same service fee three times prior.

I looked into the fee, which was aptly labeled < 7 Qualifying Services. I was charged $10.00 for August, July and June. Why? Because I hadn't used my debit card in this time.

Why haven't I been charging to my debit card? I have been unemployed and living on credit for the last two months. All my transactions went through my credit card, which I paid off with a small loan. I haven't been using my credit card for fear of overdrawing my checking account (which causes a $5.00 fee).

I plan on calling into my bank once I am off of work. Unfortunately, my bank is open half an hour past my end of day. I am not totally sure that I will have the time to settle this dispute.

This is a short retelling, because I'm very frustrated right now. I feel like I am being punished for being unemployed. This month, I will make sure to buy a stick of gum with my debit card. In the meantime, I'm going to start researching banks in Minneapolis.

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