My Two Cents Worth

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Why, I've become adept enough that I monitor my banking activity online, thank you very much. I've even learned to get comfortable with and use the ATM in the lobby of my bank. I make deposits and withdrawals all by my lonesome. It's what the bank wants, to not deal with Marty directly. Likely enough most folks don't want to deal with me. Beat you to the punch, Ron.

But technology is not without its issues, and I had one yesterday while banking. The first machine failed to work properly. It wasn't my fault, the bank employees assured me. They'd been having trouble with that particular ATM all day. Moving to the next machine, everything worked fine.

But in checking my bank account online this morning I noticed an unexpected deposit for, I am not making this up, two cents. Yes, two Lincoln coppers. Two entire pennies. The explanation was that it was an interest payment, an apology of sorts, for my trouble with that first ATM. 

So you ain't gotta worry about Marty's two cents no more. It's laying right in the bank. But if you upset me enough I may still give it to you anyway.

Too Cheap to Charge

It's a good thing that, in this Internet age, we can check things quickly. It helps a guy to hold his temper.

While checking my bank account online I was informed in a side column that there was all of a 99 cent charge on my credit card. The news flustered me: I would never charge 99 cents. I would pay it on the spot. What's going on here? Did someone hack my account?

Calm down, Marty. I'm sure, myself assured myself, that if you were hacked they're be far more brazen than a hair under a dollar purchase. If some heathen was planning on ruining your credit, they'd surely ding you for well more than that. 

All right, I argued back at myself indignantly, what numbskull would charge such a small amount? Not knocking those who I'm sure would, but it's not my style. It upset me. Let's just find out what knucklehead put 99 cents on my card.

Of course it was me. I had bought a Kindle book for that amount and promptly disremembered it. Apparently I had tied my card into Amazon and long forgotten that factoid. 

I went ahead and paid the card off while I was on the banking site. But I still grumbled over it.