31-XII-2009.
This morning Nina canceled her credit card. It was about some 30$. She logged in several times on 25th, 26th and later, to check the monthly payment, which was an automatic payment in full of any CC debt. On 25th she saw that it was paid, some 1500$. The next day she moved the rest of the money left on checking to her savings. On 28th some amount was moved back to checking to pay the CC debt, which was allegedly paid already, and 30$ was taken as a fee (WTF - the damn Wachovia was taking 5$ for that and I got mad!). Which means they showed a tentative payment on 25th, but it actually happened on 28th - so she was fooled into believing that the money she saw on 26th is all hers.
This is contrary to what banks usually do - you schedule a payment, the money is retracted from your account immediately, transferred to some account of bank's own, then paid out of there when the time comes. So they play with your money a few days. But then I always had only debit cards. This is credit and the policy is opposite, they keep your money on the account and only retract it when really playing, so you have to mentally keep track of the money parked on the side for the due payments. Which is exactly where they get you.
Which may be an honest mistake... except I woke up this morning (not to be confused with any crap blues song) and heard her on the phone with the credit union, which lasted all through my sojourn in the bathroom. The old stiff lady at the CU wouldn't balk, wouldn't confess it's an error and wouldn't reimburse the 30$. The CC is now cut into pieces, some of them in the regular garbage, some in the can we use for peanut shells (which will fill up in a few weeks), some of them slightly burned, so nobody can put them together even if they'd scour our garbage whole month. Paranoia rulez.
No plans for doček tonight, except that Nina and Ender will be in DC (his sister is still around, and they have to return Eleese to her mom - school ON monday (nobody ever puts that ON in there anymore, so the question „who starts the monday?“ can be answered with „school does“). Lena will be with us, and we'll watch the whole "Pop Ćira i Pop Spira" with Balašević... which lasts several hours.
She, of course, made fresh bread and a russian [salad, aka Olivier salad]. We drank old loza from home and sangria from that big cask-like bottle. Half a gallon, I'd say.
Mentions: doček, Eleese Aquila (Eleese), Ender Aquila (Ender), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), loza, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), in serbian