Posted on 09/19/2008 11:21:26 AM PDT by buccaneer81
Some stuck without power powerless to fight bank fees Friday, September 19, 2008 By Margaret Harding THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
When his power returned without Internet service Monday, Tom Perry had a bit of a financial freakout.
"It was kind of a panic-stricken moment there: 'Oh, no, what am I going to do?' " said Perry, whose credit-card and mortgage payment were both due that day.
Perry, like many others, pays his bills online. Online banking and bill payment are pushed as the easiest and most efficient ways to handle such transactions, but a power outage such as the one central Ohio is experiencing can leave people scrambling.
Perry was able to pay both bills over the phone, but not without a struggle. His mortgage company told him he would be charged $17 for using his phone to pay.
He avoided the fee by having his bank enter the payment, but he said he thinks companies should show a little compassion at a time like this.
"It's in their best interest to push their customers into this online payment because it cuts the cost of their collections dramatically, but things happen, and it's kind of hard when they penalized somebody when their choice of payment is unavailable," Perry said.
Huntington Bancshares didn't notice a drop in online-banking traffic this week or a spike in calls, spokeswoman Jeri Grier said. The company also has no special programs in place to accommodate customers who couldn't access their account because of a power failure, she said.
Likewise, National City didn't experience a decrease in traffic because of power failures, spokeswoman Kelly Wagner Amen said. She said the bank would handle such issues with customers on a case-by-case basis, but there would be no blanket power-outage grace period.
Key Bank spokesman Dan Davis said he didn't think there was a drop in online bank traffic, either. Instead, the bank is receiving questions on a different topic: the week's financial meltdown.
"We have been getting some calls from folks with all this turmoil going on with Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch just looking for some reassurance and trying to find out what's happening in the marketplace," Davis said.
Future Finances clients have called the wealth-management firm mainly to express annoyance that they don't have Internet access to track their investments, co-owner Brad Huffman said. One customer wanted to be kept up-to-date on the financial news he was missing during the outage.
Given the week's events, being in the dark might have been a blessing, Huffman said.
"For some people, it's probably been good because it's minimized the panic," he said.
Regardless of what's happening in the stock market, some residents were on a panicked hunt for Internet access to make sure that bills are paid and paychecks deposited.
Ohio State graduate student David Fooce said he sat in a Staples parking lot to check his bank account using a Wi-Fi hot spot. He's also been making visits to the Panera Bread on High Street to do the same.
"That was one of the things I had to do, come here and make sure I had the funds to buy a flashlight or some candles," Fooce said.
Frank Safranek of Clintonville has been making daily visits to the Whetstone Library to do "everything" online.
"I'm doing an awful lot of work here," Safranek said. "It's killing me."
Safranek said he runs out of the library to make business calls, then runs back in to check something online.
He's also wary of paying his bills online at the library, but he doesn't have a lot of other options, given that the banks around him are closed.
"I don't feel real secure doing it here because it's not a secure network like it is at home," he said.
mharding@dispatch.com
If my mortgage company had primitive or no online access, I might consider that grounds for refinancing. It is really important to me. Also for being able to see what’s going on with my account.
Yeah, I was supposed to get 70 mph winds where I live but I think I got 120. We feel a little bad that, even though we feel forgotten now, we got thousands of linemen swarming to the football, knowing that the path of destruction and power outage went from here all the way up to Cincinnatti. It’s been 10 days for me now, and I wasn’t predicted to get it until Thursday, but I think it might be a little sooner now.
Yeah, a friend here at work had an inverter and her husband hooked the air conditioner up to it. Burned it up pretty quick.
You guys might have been up by now if our guys hadn't had to turn around in Arkansas and hustle back to Columbus and Cincy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.