Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Pre-Abroad Banking

Bank of America – I challenge you to make me walk away HAPPY after one of my phone conversations with you!
I’m remembering today why I, about two years ago, was ready and willing to completely toss my Bank of America ATM card into the trash and never look back! I just spent about 20 minutes on the phone with the company, and, surprisingly, of the three people I talked to they were mostly pleasant. Despite that, I still received almost no answers to my questions and have to call back tomorrow only after they re-activate my account to get the answers I need. Sigh. Another year of this bologna, here I come!
There is, of course, one upside to HAVING a Bank of America debit card while abroad  - I wouldn’t put up with this if there wasn’t! Having access to some of the largest banks’ ATMs around Europe with NO fee for retrieving money through Bank of America is definitely a huge plus! Deutsche Bank, Barclays in England, and more all have no ATM fees for withdrawing money.
That’s it. That’s the only good thing about this ATM card. The Bank of America site is confusing, finding easy answers to questions is impossible, I’m surely going to be locked out of my account at least once in the next year because my card is being used in a foreign country (despite having put on record that I am in Europe), and there ISN’T EVEN A BANK OF AMERICA NEAR ME. But, I digress.
As if dealing with BoA isn’t enough, I found out today I have an infection in one of the sites where I got my wisdom teeth pulled out FOUR months ago. This would happen two weeks before I leave the country!
Note to self – remember to get enough medicine before leaving the country.
Another note to self – get one more contact from my wonderful optometrist/see if I can make an appointment for Christmastime.
Final note to self – remember to call my banks and let them know I will not be in the continental US.

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