Notice I said a, not the. There are myriad problems with the financial services industry. This one is a relatively small problem, but I find it incredibly annoying. This problem is that I have two bills due tomorrow. The reason this is a problem is that tomorrow is Memorial Day which is a bank holiday, which means that the bills cannot be paid tomorrow. I’ve been burned by this before, so I paid both bills on Friday, but it’s slimy to make a due date unavailable.
People who live paycheck to paycheck know exactly what I’m talking about. Anyone else may be a little confused. When money is tight, you need to be very aware of due dates, grace periods and pay days. It’s the only way to avoid bounced checks and late payments which just create more fees that you can’t afford. Putting the due date on an unavailable date just moves the due date up a day or two. When the whole month is planned and delicately balanced, that day or two can make a big difference. It would be super easy for companies to program in the fact that Sundays and holidays are unavailable, but they don’t. Any opportunity to collect more fees is good for them and they aren’t too worried about it being bad for everyone else.
Anyway, that’s my little rant for the evening. I hope everyone who gets a long weekend enjoys their extra day off.