When Nicky and I opened our account at Comerica Bank, we received a great offer. We will get 100 Bucks when we use our debit card, direct deposit and web banking three times. As poor little interns and Birch Run way too close =) we really wanted that money.
To set up our account for web banking we needed our Social Security number, which we didn't have at the time and so we had to wait a little bit. Unfortunately that made us forget it. Three month later, Nicky and I remembered that we still had to do our web banking. We had a great idea, that I will transfer to her a small amount 3 times and she will do the same. No sooner said than done! But there was one very strange thing: You didn't need any "Transaction Authentication Number" (TAN) or the account number, only the address of the recipient was necessary. But Nicky and I didn't think much longer about that fact. We only wanted to use it to get the 100 Bucks. Who cares about safety, when you won't use it again?Anyway...one week later we both still didn't have the money in our accounts and we started to wonder, what went wrong. Nicky had the great idea to read the small print and we found out, that American web banking is not like German web banking. You can take web or online banking literally in Germany. You transfer money online from one bank to another. In America you fill out a check online and the bank will send it by mail to the recipient. I am wondering if email is perhaps different as well in the States? Perhaps you are sending an email and the recipient gets a letter by mail :-) But back to the story: One day later Nicky got 3 great checks from me by mail.
First check: 1.00$
Second check: 1.01$
Third Check: 1.02$
(it wasn't possibe to take the same amount three times)
After finding out that this special offer was already expired, it was really too embarrassing to cash three one-Dollar checks at the bank. So we ripped the checks and had to go to Birch Run without our 100 Bucks of extra money :-(
(For everybody who is feeling sorry for us: Money is more than welcome: Checks can go directly to Nicole Degele or Mareike Ernst. Giftcards will be accepted as well)
(For everybody who is feeling sorry for us: Money is more than welcome: Checks can go directly to Nicole Degele or Mareike Ernst. Giftcards will be accepted as well)
Comments
Perhaps you should also write a separate blog post about the "bottle incident" ;)