HiJenx

We started out the day with some fairly good news. Chris finally doesn’t have to go to the dentist tomorrow and the weather is absolutely perfect: 70F/21C and not a cloud in the sky. It devolved fairly quickly though with annoying banking issues. We tried a wire transfer from the a non-US based dollars account, which was meant to cost nothing on the non-US end and 5 USD from the US end. There was an extra 18.60 USD apparently charged by the corporate credit union and mentioned nowhere previously; we had been expecting a 5 UDS fee and no more. Given our test transfer was only 200 USD, being charged nearly 25 USD was fairly irritating. The woman at the bank insisted it didn’t come from the US end and the people with the non-US based dollars account said it didn’t come from them.

This was especially annoying since the credit union said they had no access to corporate. We ended up having to call the people who hold the non-US based dollars account from the credit union and it was all very awkward. We spent a considerable amount of time on hold with multiple calls. No one seemed to want to admit to the charge or tell us what it meant. Obviously more funds will need to follow later, so we needed to know if it was a flat fee or a percentage in addition to who is doing it.

Due to time zones, the woman we were speaking to in the UK went home in the middle of things and we had to switch people. We decided to leave the credit union since the woman working there seemed to have no power to help us. We went to Caribou Coffee to get some fresh air (and obviously coffee). Chris had a few positively delightful chats with various people at the institution holding the non-US based dollars account in an attempt to get proof of the origin of the 18.60 USD charge.

Suspiciously 18.60 USD is exactly £12 today, so even though it came from a dollars account to another dollars account, it looks related to the pound in some way, so I am guessing charge rather than percentage, but don’t feel comfortable making further transfers to the credit union until someone will tell us what it means and the origin.

If anyone has any recommendations on the best way to transfer money without any annoying surprises, we’re all ears. I’m thinking credit unions may be out if their hands are all tied by a corporate branch who can charge and not tell us what it means or give us any access to any meaningful information. Due to Chris having trouble getting a social security number (which we will blog about properly in the near future), we may just have to rely on our international dollars account for a while.

Despite all the banking hijenx, I am enjoying that this it what it looks like outside today. 

It is meant to stay in the 70s Fahrenheit (20s Celsius) all Memorial Day weekend, and that is a good, good thing.

On a lighter note, here is a video from a few days ago when Chris still couldn’t eat normal food and had to try various soft American foods:

PS – Despite being absolutely gorgeous out, I may well spend most of the rest of the day in because Duolingo just got Norwegian! I absolutely have to try it out. Due to the relationship between Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, I already knew most of the words in lesson one, so I can’t help but want to go on.