We've Been Scammed

What a mess! Someone lifted my Debit Card and used it to drain my checking account and causing my bank to charge me overdraft fees on top of all my money the thief stole. Before it was all over I had to borrow to settle in the black with my bank. I have to say that I feel I was victimized by the thief and then victimized again by my own bank. This was ridiculous and it's still not settled. I'm awaiting a form to fill out (when it finally gets here) and then I will return it to them on the same day, and then hopefully I'll have all this money put back into my account within 2 business days of their receipt of the form. Did I say that right? Hopefully you'll know what I mean if I didn't say it the way it should have been said. This has been such a nightmare for me. I simply do not have extra funds laying around. I am on a very low fixed income and there's rarely anything left over at the end of the month. The bank sent me an email informing me that I was overdrawn and I immediately rushed down there to find out the problem. That's when we discovered the bogus charges to my debit card. And my local bank did absolutely nothing to help me out with this problem other than giving me the corporate number to call and they said they'd send out the form immediately. That was almost a week ago and still no form! Of course happening over the holiday only complicates matters. I can't believe my bank couldn't have held the overdraft fees in a "pending" situation until the fraud was investigated and settled. I don't like having to borrow money for my own bank fees. That's ridiculous. Has anyone out there had this problem or anyone know of anyone whose debit card was used fraudulently and been shafted by their local bank? My account is so messed up right now that I don't know which end it up. All I know is the money I had to borrow is in the bank rather than being in my hands! This world is full of dishonest people. I expect that. But I also expect my bank to handle things better. To be a little more helpful toward a customer. Making me borrow to pay the bank fees (or risk getting charged for every day my account is in arrears) is not the way to treat a fraud victim and a good customer. I've never had an overdraft before on my account, in all these years. And everyone I've talked with about this, totally agrees with me. One friend checked with her bank to see how they would have handled the situation if it had been her and was told that as soon as they are informed of fraudulent actions regarding debit cards, they immediately "pend" the amount of the fraud and all bank fees. Guess who's seriously thinking about changing banks!! Okay settle down, girl.

I was hoping to purchase the fabric I need for my other sister's placemats for Christmas this coming week when we drive across the river to do our shopping. But with my money and bank mess still hovering overhead (if it's not settled by then and it probably won't be) I won't have the money freed to pay for the fabric I planned to buy. I've already gotten 6 placemats sewn for my oldest sister. I have one more to sew up as a sample for me to put in next year's fair and then I'm out of fabric if I don't buy the fabric as originally planned. I will hopefully figure something out when my monthly allotment comes in. I'd hate to make two trips across the river this month if it can be avoided. Enough on this. I've tried to be a bit vague (seems you can't trust anyone these days) and I've probably succeeded in only making no sense at all. Forgive me.

I finally finished my green socks. Yippee!! And as I've said, I have 6 placemats sewn for my older sister's Christmas present and it isn't even June. I feel good about that. Still need to purchase the fabric for both sister's aprons (and BJ's placemats) and then I'll be done with their gifts. But that will also mean I have nothing to sew if I don't pick up more fabric.

Thank goodness I have my vest to work on. (I started this vest over a year ago and I'm just now getting back around to it.) I finished off the rest of the back I needed to do and then I've got the front knit almost to the armholes (going bottom up). So I'm making progress. I will need to pick up stitches around the armholes and neck and knit 6 rows allowing the work to roll. That will give my vest its finished look. I'm not too good at picking up stitches but I bet I improve greatly before this vest is finished. I will be glad to get it finished. Then I will work on the baby afghan I started and never finished. (I'm definitely in the mood to finish abandoned projects.) If you remember (and if I told you) my projects got hi-jacked when I decided to knit a pair of socks and ended up knitting 8 pairs!! But now I'm tired of socks and I'm ready to knit other things for awhile. I still have the yarn for projects I haven't even started yet. So it's not like I'll run out of things to do if I can't buy my fabric when I want next week. It's just that I had my plans all made out and I didn't do anything wrong with my money to be in this mess. I was robbed!!! That's not my fault. And I'll tell you, when this is all over, there better not be any mention of an overdraft on my account or I definitely will change banks!

We had a few cold and rainy days last week. In fact we got an inch of rain Thurs. night and things were so sloppy we decided not to walk Fri. morning. But it has since warmed up and it's suddenly shorts weather again. I'm tired of the rain but I'm not looking forward to the heat of summer. I hate our hot summers. We get a few days close to 120 degrees in the summer and that's not fun for anyone. I get so grouchy and naggy. I'm a horrible person when the temp goes that high in July and August. Of course one year we hit those high records in late June so it may not be very far off in the future before I'll be praying for rain again. I do like being able to wear shorts and T-shirts again instead of having to bundle up in coats and scarves. And I like to go barefoot too.

I know this hasn't been much of a blog this time. (As if it ever is!!) But I will promise to try to do better with the next post. I've been promising myself that I would write to my sponsor child too and I keep putting that off. I really do need to get that done though. I shouldn't let it go so long between letters. She's a doll in India; a jewel in my crown. And I love her greatly. It's just that I've gotten behind. My computer doesn't have a printer so I have to borrow hubby's computer and printer and that is hard to do. He's usually busy on his computer. But I'll try my best to get some time in the next week or so to write that letter. I can definitely says my life hasn't been boring lately. Not with having so many projects to do and then having been robbed! You just never know what's going to happen in my life. Until next time...