checking, schmecking.

Two posts in one day! Amazing, I know!

When I got hired on at the casino, I wasn't aware they didn't have a direct deposit system set up for paychecks. This isn't a problem normally, except that my bank is in Gillette, not in Spearfish or Deadwood. What about branches of the bank, you say? No, this bank has no branches, "only roots." I have no way of getting my money to my bank account in Gillette without setting up some pretty elaborate systems. So here's what I did:

Set up a checking account in the Spearfish bank where I already have a savings account (I only made the account so I could cash checks without being charged a fee).

Set up a SmartPay plan where I make my bank account in Gillette the payee, and all I have to do is enter how much money from my account in Spearfish that I want to send to my bank in Gillette. Seems pretty simple, right? Especially because it's online.

Well folks, it's really not that simple. It takes an additional WEEK for the "electronic" money to be sent to Gillette, which is only an hour and fifteen minutes away on the Interstate. Now, that just doesn't seem logical, does it? Well, it's not.

I called my bank/my mom to ask if my paycheck had been wired in yet. Nope, not yet. Well, that's funny, because the money has been taken out of my checking account in Spearfish. So I guess it's just floating around in space somewhere. Fantastic.

Called the Spearfish bank to see what's going on. They said it takes 5 business days to go through, and it's only been 4, and I need to be patient. I told the lady on the phone that it was rather silly to have to wait around an additional week to get my paycheck that I deposited in their bank on payday.

So what do I do? Order a box of checks from the Spearfish bank. When they come in, I will sign an entire book of checks, and send it in the mail to my mom (praying that it's not intercepted somewhere...oh jeez, that could be bad), and just call her up every payday and say, "My paycheck for $xxx is in, could you please write a check from my Spearfish account and deposit it in my Gillette account? Thank you."

Now, how much of a pain in the arse is this? It's quite a lot of work, I think. Some people say, "Just keep your checking account in Spearfish, that way you don't have to worry about all this." Well, that would be fine and dandy, especially since they have online checking and whatnot, but then I wouldn't have as much of a reason to call my mom and talk with her.

"Just cash the check when you get it." Well, then I couldn't pay my credit card bill, cell phone bill, electricity bill, or cable/internet bill, as those are all either taken out of my checking account either automatically, or they don't accept cash through the mail.

What a royal pain.