So, speaking of financial matters, I just had a funny conversation with an HSBC representative. I had to give them a call because we got a notice from the credit union that they didn’t get our March payment. It’s set up to automatically pay through the Bill Pay online, so I thought that was odd.
So I called to find out what’s up. HSBC confirms the check was never cashed. Now I have to call the credit union and explain what happened and see if they’ll waive the $20 late fee. Irritating, but whatever…
Then, after resolving the initial problem, the following conversation occurs:
HSBC Rep: One more thing Mr. Christ. I notice you don’t have overdraft protection on your account. Would you like to add it for free?
Me: No.
HSBC Rep: But it’s free.
Me: I’m not interested.
HSBC Rep: Can I ask why not?
Me: Because we don’t spend money we don’t have.
HSBC Rep: [Silence] Ok. Thank you Mr. Christ.
Made me think of this great video from Saturday Night Live. (WordPress doesn’t seem to have an easy way to embed Hulu videos, so you’ll have to visit the link.)
EDIT: Let’s try this, actually:
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2302030&w=425&h=350&fv=]
That was SO funny! Banking people just don’t get the whole “we don’t spend money we don’t have” thing. Personally, I think that’s why there are so many foreclosures these days. People were talked into (or maybe they thought it themselves) buying more house than they could afford. When I was in mortgage banking, we were far more cautious about giving mortgages to people that were close to the suggested loan-to-value ratio we had set up. Maybe they didn’t do that with these recent foreclosures.??
When we were looking for our first house in Texas, we looked at a new house that was almost done being built. The builder offered all kinds of options for getting a loan through a lender he knew. They included things like making up additional income sources and some other crazy thing that I don’t remember now.
I checked his advice with a bank president our church had a relationship with and he basically condemned the advice as dangerous and stupid. We ended up looking elsewhere, which really ticked off the builder, but whatever. 🙂
Thanks for bringing this skit back to mind–it TOTALLY cracks me up!!!!!
Great video. I can see a lot of uses for that one!