Morning Jolt

My wife made coffee this morning, which was nice of her. She prefers decaf, and I don't mind. The white envelope she handed me with the coffee had the jolt.

My credit union has been around for 35 years. You may recall that thirty five years ago the vast majority of banking actions were either done face to face, or via the mail. The credit union has upgraded over time, so that now you can do banking from home, communicating with them via email as needed. They even have email alerts -- they call them e-lerts; how precious -- for events that you want to know about, such as loan payments that are due or accounts that drop below a given value.

What they don't alert on is an automated transfer from one account to another in the case of an overdraft. For them, they print out a piece of paper, put it into an envelope, give the envelope to a Pony Express rider...okay, maybe not that last part. But the first two parts, you bet.

I keep a tight eye on money, and I don't float checks. Period. So if I get an overdraft, the overwhelming likelihood is that a transfer of funds to cover a large check didn't happen. Of course, my assumption is that I said transfer, they said okay, and it didn't happen. It's possible that I simply didn't do the transfer. Whatever, to me it's an abnormal event, one that I'd want to know about right away. Not just because it happened, but because they transfer just exactly enough to cover the checks that are due. Another one comes in the next day, they do it all again. Get out the paper form, find an envelope....

But an email to say hey, this happened, figured you'd want to know immediately? Nope. Not an option. I figure its because to them, its no big deal -- I presented a check, they paid it, what's the problem? And it's not as if they charge a fee -- they don't (which is a good thing, I realize). But still.....

Is it me that doesn't get it, or them?