After fifteen or sixteen years with the same account, I have finally closed my first “real” bank account.

On Saturday, Justine and I ventured to our local Commonwealth Bank office to close our five accounts (an account each, a credit card each and a combined account) with the bank. However — and not to our surprise, the bank refused to close our accounts on a non-weekday. Additionally, even though they offered to let us fill in the paperwork and do it on the next business day (Tuesday, of course, since the Monday was a public holiday) they couldn’t close the credit cards as a payout figure could not be retrieved. Forget the fact that we owed nothing on both cards and hadn’t for months.

So, yesterday, we returned to the bank at 9:30am. Why do banks still operate 9:30-4:00 (or 4:30) hours? Everywhere else has extended hours, why not have the staff start at 8:30 so they can open at 9:00? It can’t be too hard to have people there working until 6:00pm as well, so they could close at 5:30pm.

But I digress; the line at the bank was close to a dozen people. Luckily there was no crush to enter as the place opened. We were directed by a loud man to a small Malaysian lady who promptly closed all our accounts. We weren’t asked for any ID, other than the ATM and credit cards we provided to close the accounts, which makes me wonder how easy it will be to close someone’s account and take out all the money should I find a wallet in the near future.

The lady helping us didn’t even bother to try and stop us closing the accounts, as per policy. Mostly because we explained the situation where my credit card was blocked while we were overseas last year and she’d experienced a similar, but not as dramatic situation previously. She also told us that though Justine’s card had a notification she’d be overseas, mine didn’t. After I called twice to confirm. If that’s the case, it makes me wonder why it took over three weeks for the card to be locked.

An even better reason we’re no longer with the Commonwealth Bank. Good riddance, I say.

It’s taken almost three months, but finally the dispute over ridiculous charges on our credit card for what is, in my opinion, possibly the worst hotel ever — the Whiteleaf Hotel — has been closed.

A recap: We checked into the hotel (detailed elsewhere on the net, we found shortly after checking out) and were charged before we even saw our room; our first room (on the first floor, just behind reception) had our bed propped against the wall, and was being treated for bugs.

Our second room (on the fifth floor), up a series of incredibly steep stairs, was as disgusting as detailed in the link provided earlier. Except there were animal droppings on the floor, too.

After arguing with the on-duty manager for an hour that we did not want to pay the charges and were willing to stay and pay for the first night only, I was ready to snap so to avoid ruining our trip with a night in the big house, we left immediately.

Unfortunately, the day didn’t get any better. I couldn’t call the bank reverse charges (the three numbers I tried didn’t work at all, and the phone booths smelled like pee). As it was fashion week we had an incredible amount of trouble finding a room. We found and booked an expensive-but-nice-looking hotel, but we couldn’t get it for that night. It took almost five hours of wandering through London, at night, before we were able to find a place far in excess of our needs. To tired to fight, or care, we paid that as well.

In all, that one night’s accommodation would have cost us around $750. If it came to it, I was ready to put it down to a bad holiday experience and leave it.

When we came back home, I figured I may as well try and dispute it. My first visit to the bank had me arguing with the “service” lady that yes, I had paid, but no I didn’t receive the service because no reasonable civilised human being would pay for a room so disgusting. I’m hardly a French Duke in need of five-star accommodation, I just don’t want to be afraid of roaches crawling over me while I sleep… especially when paying so much for the privilege. Besides, I didn’t have all the paperwork anyway.

My second visit to the bank, a week or two later (and two emails without response trying to contact the company to discuss my grievances — they had also overcharged us, which I hadn’t realised until then), and I had a much more reasonable lady who had faced a similar experience in the past and was more than willing to assist. I didn’t expect much, but at least the bank takes the disputed charge off your credit card until it is completed (win or lose) and you don’t pay interest on it in that time.

The 45-day deadline for disputes was almost up last week, and I’d received nothing from the bank about it. I had to call about another funny problem with my credit card (it showed they owed me money!) and I asked how the dispute was going.

Well, the entire charge (almost $550) was reversed on the credit card! I had initially expected only part to be refunded as I thought it fair if we had paid the first night’s accommodation even though we left. They were even kind enough to refund the International currency conversion fee.

What a win. Me: 1. Bank: 2,895,728

This is the second post in the ‘Take that’ series. As the post on the other end of that previous link shows, I managed to get my credit card balance owing back down to $0, once upon a time.

That previous time was Visa. This time, it’s the Commonwealth Bank that is taking… erm… that. Over the past couple of months, I’d been trying to decide whether I should use my savings to pay off my car loan early, go on a holiday, or buy a nice TV (unfortunately, it wouldn’t have been one as nice as Sony’s Qualia 006). Since I want to wait a little longer to get a new TV, and I’m not sure where we’d go on a holiday yet, I decided to pay off my car loan early. I figured that I will have saved myself somewhere in the region of $500-700 in interest by paying it off slightly more than a year early.

A few months back, I called the bank to find out how to go about closing the account. The first answer I got is that I’d called too late, and would have to call earlier to close it. Oh well then. Some time passed, and I attempted to close the account on Monday in the branch. Unfortunately, I hadn’t initiated the transfer of money from my savings account so I didn’t actually have the money, and using my credit card (while giving me lots of points) would have cost a lot of money. D’oh. So I transferred the money Monday afternoon.

Today, I called again to close the account. This time, I was told I had to go into the branch to sign “end of loan paperwork”. News to me. Not only that, I had to actively cancel the fortnightly payment into the other account, even though I would have gotten the balance to $0, effectively ending the loan. Right.

At the bank, I filled out a withdrawl and deposit form which was actioned. Then, I signed one form to end the fortnightly payment; no “end of loan paperwork” in sight. How stupid.

Never mind. I am finally, currently pretty-much debt free for a while! I know it won’t be for long (maybe a few years at most, if I’m lucky) so I might just try to enjoy it. My car might not be great, but not having to pay it off any more is a great load off my mind!

I wonder why I keep saving — and using — those “Save four cents a litre” coupons from our local supermarket. Four cents sounds like quite a lot at first, especially when going from say 93.9 cents a litre to 89.9, but in reality it doesn’t mean much in the end.

I filled my car pretty much from empty this evening. Being a fuel-guzzling Falcon, the tank’s relatively large. Even so, I only fill up on average once a fortnight.

I managed to pump around 67 litres into my car. “Wow, sixty-seven litres times four cents a litre! I’ll be saving heaps!” is the sort of un-intelligent though that goes through my head each and every time I use one of these coupons. It feels like you’re getting a great deal.

In the end, I saved less than $2.70. Big deal. Even $2.70 doesn’t seem too bad, until you think that it’d take ten fill-ups, or twenty weeks (five months!) at the rate I fill up to get a decent amount of saving. In a year, I might save sixty-five bucks total. That’s maybe one full tank of petrol, all for scrimping and saving those damn coupons. Pfft.

For lunch, Lesly and I went to Domino’s Pizza, which is conveniently located very close to work. The place was previously called Big Daddy’s Pizza, and anyone who has eaten from the Big Daddy’s chain knows that it doesn’t matter which pizza you order, since they all taste the same anyway.

Since the store turned into the Domino’s chain, however, I don’t mind eating there every now and then. I’d never really looked in detail at their menu until today; the number of surcharge applies type messages on the menu are astounding.

You want a special type of pizza base? Surcharge applies. How about chicken or prawns? Surcharge. What about one of the fancy “maniac” pizzas? Yup, surcharge still applies. Half and half? Still a surcharge. Eating on a public holiday? A surcharge is still applied. The “normal, everyday” pizza price? Surcharge applies if you don’t pick it up. Even the “lunch special” has limits, go outside those limits and you guessed it, surcharge applies.

I’m surprised there’s not a surcharge surcharge. I mean, adding all those extra surcharges is hard work, it surely requires an additional surcharge just for the costs to be added!

The pizza was OK, by the way. Not as good as it was the last couple of times we visited, but still passable (and miles better than Big Daddy’s).

Last night I managed to get my credit card balance back to $0. I try to make sure I do this once a year to avoid getting too far in debt. I’ve been concentrating on paying it off since July (i.e. no more charges on it, just paying it off) and a few things got in the way — like our trip to Sydney.

So, Visa, stick that in your pipe and smoke it. Now, what can I buy since I have so much money spare*?

*Note: Money may not actually be spare.

Since I’ve been the boss now for almost two weeks, I decided I’d check how much extra I’m getting paid on work’s intranet.

After tax, super and so on, it’s barely even worth the extra work (which is also a poor excuse for why I have not blogged much; I can spare some time but my brain refuses to think of much else but work right now) I’m doing. In a few minutes, I’m going to leave for Geelong, and I probably won’t leave Geelong until around 7:30 this evening. Of course, even a $5,000 pay rise (what I am getting is not anyway near that, by the way) is only < $100 a week before tax, so I suppose anything extra is always a plus.

I can also chalk it up to a positive experience (so far at least) and it’s always a good thing to put on the CV. The other positive thing is that even though my pay will go back down (slightly!) in six weeks, my workload will also plummet!

I can also now appreciate how hard my boss works — and I know from my personal observations that he works harder (or at least seems a lot more stressed than I allow myself to get) than I have been so far. Of course, I have a few “big” things still to go like manager’s meetings, which I haven’t yet attended (but will in the next week or so).

So, only six weeks ’til I’m back to being a code monkey! Heh…