Byeeeeee

Usually when we dropped the MonkeyFish off at daycare, he hares straight off to play with the toys or play chasey with his little friends. On Monday we dropped him off a little bit later than usual and all the other kids were being let outside to play.

MonkeyFish headed straight for the sandpit with his little friend Lachlan and they proceeded to tip all the toys out of the box into the sandpit.

'Bye MonkeyFish', I said, 'see you this afternoon'.
'Bye Mummy', said MonkeyFish.

'Bye MonkeyFish, bye Lachlan', said Buster.
'Bye Man', said Lachlan.
'Bye ... Man?', said MonkeyFish.

Ahh, it warms the cockles of your heart doesn't it?

How's that for being born under a bad sign?

Buster has banking issues.

For the last ten years he has done all his business banking with a nameless giant of the banking industry ie. the Commonwealth Bank. Over the last year or so, Buster has tried at least four times to change his address on the business account to no avail. He's been into the branch a few times, he's tried over the phone and even faxed the signed forms in himself (in case the branch were doing it wrong). But alas, apparently it is beyond their capability. And, to be frank, being charged outrageous fees has done nothing to earn them redemption.

So Buster finally decided to close the accounts. So in he went to the branch and said, and I quote, "I want to close everything". So they did.

Until yesterday when Buster received a $38 invoice from CBA for fees for maintaining his merchant account (which is the credit card processing facility). Clearly when you say that you want to close everything, merchant accounts are not included. I'm not quite sure how they expect Buster to process credit card payments without have any account in which to deposit the money though.

The best bit is that when he rang up to explain that he'd tried to close 'everything' and then received an invoice for the merchant account they said that he had to pay a $110 fee to close the merchant account. On the bright side they'll waive the $38 invoice.

When he went in to a rival bank to open a new business account, he was told that there was a $60 fee for doing a business name search (which is their way of confirming his business registration number).

I think Buster is considering the old money under the bed banking system now.