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10/06/2004: "Dangers of Online Banking!"

Some of you may remember back in March, when in a haze of embarrassment over the copious amounts of dirt sucked out of my carpet by the Kirby salesman (see Beware the Kirby Vacuum Salesperson), I purchased an insanely expensive vacuum, and I had to fill out a form to finance it because I didn't have the money.

A co-worker convinced me of my insanity the next day and I returned the vacuum immediately. The salesman voided out the financing agreement and I even called the financial institution (After I received a notice from them) to let them know that I *did not* finance a Kirby purchase. Everyone assured me it was all taken care of.

Now today, since I started trying to get my finances in order, I found out that they had been automatically taking 63 dollars a month out of my checking account! I never caught it because the financing company has the vague name of "United Consumers" and because that's the exact amount of my auto pay for one of my student loans.

To their credit, when I notified the Kirby dealership of the problem they apologized and agreed to have the money refunded to me immediately. This whole situation just illustrates that online banking, though convenient, sometimes makes it more difficult to catch errors. If I had been filling out a paper check to "United Consumers" every month I would have caught it right away. Sufice it to say I am going to go through my statements *much* more carefully from now on.