Rolling My Own

Banks wont take my money anymore. I walked into Bank of America and handed over my quarters but she wouldn't take them. Instead, she gave me a packet of paper rolls, and told me to roll my own. She said they don't take loose change.

But, but, don't you guys have a change counter? You know, you just drop in the coins and it counts them and packages them for you? No? You'd think that a bank would be glad to take your money.

In fact, they don't even want to give you money. Some months ago I asked for a money order in one of the B of A's near work. They said the cost of the money order would be $15! Fifteen dollars?

"I have a B of A account, why are you charging me $15 for a $20 money order?"

"Oh, but your account is in California and our Georgia banks are not connected."

Give me a break. I could connect my Georgia computer to my folks machine in California and you mean to tell me that Bank of America can't figure this out? I went to a QuickStop (similar to 7-Eleven) and got a money order for a buck.

But I still needed my coins counted. There was a coin counter in the Kroger store just a few feet over. (The B of A "Customer Service" was in the Kroger store itself. It's a new concept I suppose.) The problem with the coin counter is that it robs me of 8% of my money. You got it, for every dollar it counts, it keeps eight cents. I guess the little person inside the machine counting the coins has to make a living somehow. So they can have my pennies and even my nickles, but my quarters? No way.

Anyway, I collect all this loose change because I can't stand to hear it jingle in my pockets. When I come home I dump it all into a glass jar. Eventually, it fills and I must take the change in to a bank.

So tonight I roll up quarters. If you've ever done this you know how much tallent it takes. I thought it would take me a few minutes but an hour later I had about $160.

You know, I rolled nearly enough to pay for my Porsche key from yesterday! So there.

...dave
We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs.  -Gloria Steinem