Posts tagged “personal finance”

I lost my Citibank ATM card and it's been a nightmare. Losing the card locks me out of online banking too, phone transfers aren't possible, and their "Global Executive Banking" program is useless outside US business hours. I'm closing this account as soon as humanly possible.

Moving between continents means wrestling with global banks that are global in name only. Citibank's West Coast branches operate like a completely different bank because, until 2002, they were. Scale creates complexity, complexity kills efficiency, and globalization turns out to be naturally self-limiting. My banking nightmare proves it.

I was double-charged by my bank, emailed them, and they quietly refunded the money with no explanation or apology. Check your statements regularly -- I nearly missed an extra £80 disappearing from my account.

Last night in New York playing Tropico and stumbled on SaveKaryn.com, where a woman wants strangers to bail her out of $20k in self-inflicted credit card debt. The audacity is staggering, especially since she apparently put even more debt on the card to build the donation site.

Exams are killing me and my bank balance is dire, but I just found out my university awarded me a scholarship 9 months ago and forgot to tell me. Silver lining. Still jobless, but my last exam is the 12th and then the daily job hunt calls begin.