*kicks things*

So, Friday at lunch time, I went with my friend Elise to the Ben & Jerry's near work. I didn't feel all that much like ice cream so I had a fruit smoothy thing instead. I paid using my bank card.This same day, at just after 5:00pm I went to pay for a new agenda at the McGill bookstore (where I went to see some friends and former co-workers and I needed a new agenda!), and the student working the register told me my card said "invalid card, card use limit reached". Um, what? I was only the 5th of June and I had not used my bank card all that much this week - mainly because I wasn't all that flush with the cash in the account. But I KNEW I had money in there, so it wasn't that. And invalid card?Oh, crap. Not again.You see, for the Bank of Montreal, if you happen to use your debit card at a place they might consider "suspect" they automatically flag your debit card as "compromised". BUT THEY DO NOT TELL YOU.This is my problem with them. And of course it was after five on a Friday and all bank branches would be closing soon and I couldn't get to one AND I was about to meet my friend Carolyn for our dinner date and now I had no money access. I couldn't go to a bank machine because I knew it would eat my card if I inserted it and it was cancelled. Dammit.So, I ran to meet Carolyn and we went into Chapigo. I joked with her that maybe Shawn cancelled the card on me because he knew I was going into a bookstore with her (my former boss at Coles) and it's dangerous for me to be in a store and he wanted to make sure I didn't buy anything. Heh. I actually phoned Shawn at home to see if he could log in to the online banking site with my card, if he got an error message I knew my card was cancelled.Sure enough. Woo. Dinner and what I had to pick up went on Ye Olde Credit Card which has way too much on it for my liking already and I have been trying to NOT put more on it and concentrate on paying it off. Anyhow. Damn.My real panic though? Was the fact that our car payment comes out at midnight on Sunday/Monday. As does our car insurance payment. I had not yet transferred this money into the account it comes out of. I was planning on doing it in the afternoon on Friday, but work was so busy I didn't have time. Had I tried though, I likely would have noticed that the card was cancelled before the banks closed. Grr. And of course it was FRIDAY NIGHT. You try finding a bank that's open on the weekend.Shawn did mention that the BMO site did say they were having difficulties with their online banking and it should be fixed soon. There was the slight hope that it wasn't my card itself, but I wasn't holding my breath because this has happened to me at least 5 times in the last 2-3 years and it's always the same.So Saturday morning, 9AM I am on the phone with the 800 help line number, verifying that it's indeed my card the problem after I could not log into the online thing. The guy on the phone (who sounded very young and very nice) was kind enough to help me find some Open on Saturday bank branches, but he didn't know Montreal very well and wasn't able to let me know which were close to me, so he was listing them all off so I could try and figure out where they were. I saved his suffering through the French names and asked if this was something I could find on their website myself. And it was (I just couldn't find it before!)It was coming up on 10AM now and it seemed  had two options. Two of the IGA grocery stores near me had a bank "closet" (as I call it) that was open 7-days a week and from 9-5 on the weekends. Only they didn't have teller service, just a dude who could give you financial advice. It was unknown if the dude would have extra bank cards. Or there was one in Old Montreal which was open until noon. On a weekend where all the streets were pretty much closed for bike tours and things. Hmm.So I woke Shawn up early and asked if we could go to IGA and see if this will work. I needed to transfer that money!Lucky for us, the dude in the closet at our IGA (who could play Archie Andrews in a movie!) was able to help me out. I almost hugged him! He was young and friendly and cute (and a comic book character!). And he got me a new bank card and I was able to rush home and transfer funds from savings to chequing. Woohoo!Oh, and while I was on the phone with Helpful Torontonian CSR guy, I asked him to lodge an official complaint on my behalf - not against him at all! But like I mentioned, this is at least the 5th time they have done this to me in the last couple of years and NEVER PHONED ME! Except the one time a year or so ago when I got a call almost TWO WEEKS after it was cancelled and I had already been to the bank and gotten a new card. I remember saying "Again?" and they said it was on such and such a date. And I replied "Really? Are you kidding me? You are calling me almost two weeks AFTER the fact, when I have already been to the bank and replaced the card? You suck."And each time this happens, and I call, I am told "Oh, we ALWAYS phone. Your contact information must be wrong, it's not our fault." And each time I have them confirm the numbers they have on file for me - they have 3 numbers, home, cell and work and ALL OF THEM ARE CORRECT. "Oh, well, you don't have voicemail then." Um, yes, I do. AND Call ID and not once have you phoned. You bastards.And if it weren't for the fact that I would have to change mortgage payments, car payments, insurance payments, property tax payments and paycheque deposit information, I would switch banks in a heartbeat. Though I know that all the other banks out there suck just as much and if it's not one thing it's another. And the fees! Don't get me started on the bloody fees!Maybe if we ever move out of the Province I'll change banks. Say we moved east, well there might not be as many branches of our bank. So we might have to. And maybe we'll have other things to complain about then.Because right now? I think you're useless, Bank of Montreal.