Discovering the world on $20 per day ......................




Post 29: 'Kick me I'm dreaming'


'I just got a letter from the bank, .... I'm overdrawn mate, ... the money's all gone' ...... Alan Kelly 18:09 Hours 16/04/2008
At first I laughed, ... but then I realised that he wasn't joking. Just when we thought that all of our bases were covered, the unexpected problem rises from nowhere and bites us firmly on the arse. The biggest problem we've had to overcome this far is a 'Lack of Money', ....... Alan's telephone call on Wednesday evening suggested that the new problem might well be 'No Money' at all. He'd returned from work and opened a letter from his bank stating that as he's such a valued customer, they'd refunded the £30 fee for going overdrawn on his current account. Err, .... which 'overdrawn' is that? He reads further only to find that the majority of Poor Circulation's budget had transformed overnight from an almost reasonable wedge of cash into a nasty looking overdraft. I have to say that it wasn't the best news I'd received that day and to suggest that Alan's gander was at vertical, .... would be the absolute truth. In the interests of any younger readers I'll save you from the actual language used, ..... but it's fair to say that ears would be burning down in E14. Looking on the bright side, Alan may have been 'Robbed', but the genuine cheque that finally sent him into apparent overdraft had been payable to me and the funds have already cleared, ... I'm alright Jack.
Back in March, Alan had lost £250 from his current account. His bank identified that it wasn't withdrawn by him and agreed to make a refund and replaced his bank cards etc. Following that incident, the news that his handsome Credit Balance had transformed into an ugly Debit Balance really wasn't what he wanted to hear. It didn't help that the bank in question had no 'Call Centre' or any other way of resolving the problem until 9am this morning. I guess he's had quite a restless night, probably hoping that he'd wake this morning to find Bobby Ewing back in the shower and that everything in his world was once again peachy.
I'd like to tell you that it's simply an error based on the way that his various bank accounts are interlinked, ... but as he's now stranded on the M11 (Road Closure) I'll simply have to hope for the best. I telephoned him earlier, .. but I think that he's exhausted the charge in his mobile phone, ........ and all of the charging leads are sitting in my panniers (Ooops). I'm confident that we've identified what happened, and that Alan's money is still all there, ...... but if I was in his Frank Thomas Aqua's, .... I'd be panicking too.
I'll add to this 'Post' and let you know what the eventual outcome is, but surely, ........ nothing else could possibly go wrong.
UPDATE: Bank Error in Our Favour, .... Collect Passports & Advance to Go :-)

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