2003-02-22 - 9:49 a.m.

Ominous signs?

Some times small easily overlooked events make me very nervous. Yesterday contained one. 800 and I share a bank account, but I haven't used it for years and years. I got sick and tired of paying checking fees for overdrawn checks and since nothing seemed to work I opted out of the banking system. My small income from teaching in private school was usually just enough for a house payment and groceries, so where to keep my money wasn't a problem. I just took the check to the bank the school used and cashed it for free. Or I took it to a local grocery store.

Then local grocery stores decided to either charge a fee for cashing checks or demanding a purchase of 10% of the check. That didn't seem unreasonable since they had the inconvenience but I didn't do that very often. When I started working as a lab tech and earning a decent wage, I joined the credit union on the grounds at work and cashed my check there. They have a policy of only giving out $500 a day, but since my check didn't approach that amount with car payment and savings taken out, it was no problem. Over the years, if I did have more checks to cash than that amount, I went to our bank and cashed them since my name was on the account too.

Yesterday a new policy was started at the bank and probably at all banks in the area. Checks will not be cashed unless there is already that amount in the account. The check can be deposited in the account and the cash withdrawn but only after the check has cleared. In fact personal checks written on the account with the new deposit in it will bounce until the check deposited clears. Does this seem odd to anyone besides me? Many many folk in this area live from payday to payday. The check is often deposited only to be spent in 2 or 3 days on living expenses. I can forsee many more overdraft fees for lots of people in the future.

I have other options that are fairly painless. I can just take my check as usual to the credit union, get the $500 per day I am allowed and put the rest in savings. I can even start my own checking account and not worry about the $500 per day limit, but I am not likely to do that. The thing that bothers me the most is that I can see how easy it will be to set up things in the near future so that one can neither buy or sell without a mark. With grocery cards that track what is purchased and when one is not allowed to purchase items for the advertised price without a card, the future looks pretty grim. I am not a doom sayer usually and I don't intend to get paranoid until the numbers '666' get added to the mix but it may be time to practice refusing cooperation now.

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