No other way to put it.
It started with our bank back in the States closing all 4 of our accounts. Not freezing - CLOSING. I went online to pay some bills last weekend and there was nothing.
So a panicked call to the 24 hour hotline was absolutely no help except to learn that the money was not missing, we had not been hacked and that we would have to wait until Monday evening for any additional information.
So Blaine went to the office on Monday to find a letter from our bank saying that had decided to "end our banking relationship." No reason why.
Monday night had us finally being able to talk to a person who said that the accounts were closed because I made a mobile deposit - yes, DEPOSIT - from Malaysia. Not a withdrawal - a deposit . Now, 9 times out of 10 I make mobile deposits at home via the VPN, but back in October I made one when I was out and about and that was the one that deemed us as sketchy. No phone calls or emails to ask us about this - just cut us off.
So, this very helpful guy said he would do everything in his power to get our accounts back open, but checks had been mailed for everything in our accounts and the checks were somewhere between Kansas City and Kuala Lumpur. Fabulous. No open accounts, no money in the States.
And try opening a checking account while you are halfway around the world without a permanent address in the States. You look like a homeless terrorist in the eyes of the banking industry.
Now, I'm going to say, by yesterday afternoon he had our accounts reopened, but our money is still in limbo. And with the help of a good friend of Blaine's, we were able to open a secondary checking account, but it's also empty.
Now, lessons learned this week:
1. Keep a good eye on your accounts. I check most of our accounts every 24-48 hours. Our bank account had been closed within that 48 hour window - it can happen that fast.
2. Do not have all of your accounts at one bank. No matter how great your relationship is with your bank - and we thought ours was great - things can go awry quickly. I will now be sure to have a couple of accounts at a couple of banks all containing a decent sum of cash.
3. Cheetos are my go-to food when I'm stressed. Please ignore the orange fingerprints on my keyboard.
Please think positive thoughts that some checks appear this week - and that we can somehow get them deposited. (Yes, they mailed cashiers checks which need to be presented in person with identification. We'll cross that bridge when the checks arrive!)
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