b of s

i'm currently on hold with bank of america, practically holding my breath to keep from screaming.

as kids, my grandparents would buy us stock for our birthdays (among other things, obviously).  when i turned 18, my grandpa gave me the choice to keep the money in the market or remove it, and since i'm too much of a money grubber to be a gambler, i opted to take it all out of the stock market and place it in a countrywide savings account.  i promptly forgot about it for years and years while in college, until bank of america bought out countrywide and i started getting statements detailing crazy monthly maintenance fees being removed from my account.  i don't bank with b of a and taking care of it wasn't a super high priority for me, until last november, when i realized a) i could actually use the money and b) i didn't want to come back to the account in 2012 to find it had all been eaten by fees (as i wasn't putting any money into it).

so, i walked into a branch, closed the account and ran off with my monies.

cut to: last week, when my mother started getting calls from collections agencies in my name.  turns out that despite my physically closing the account (and withdrawing all the funds), the account had been reopened without my knowledge due to a few cents interest that had accrued before i shut it down.  because the account had been conveniently reopened, the bank could continue charging me maintenance fees and because there was no money in the account and i assumed (incorrectly, i guess) that i was done with bank of america, eventually the unpaid, delinquent fees had been sent to collections.

um, what?  it was only $57 and i could have easily just paid it to the collections agency or to the bank and gotten it taken care of, but i am my mother's daughter and am very concerned with "the principle of the thing," so i'm on the phone with a third person from the bank, who just told me that i'd have to handle it with the collections agency, despite the fact that i've already talked to them and they referred me to the bank.

i hate the world.

good news, though.  apparently, she took care of it.  in fact, she was so eager to get me off the phone, this is how the conversation went:

her: "ok, i'm gonna let you hang up now."
me: "sooooo, has there been resolution?"
her: "yes."
me: "ok, can you tell me how?  did you send an electronic message to the collections agency?  are you going to mail it?"
her: "it's on the computer."
me: "right.  so if i call the agency tomorrow, it should all be worked out?"
her: "yes."

the end.  i'm tired of this for right now, so i'm going to trust her, but i have a feeling i'll be doing all this shit again tomorrow.