van expenses

I got my van back from Tom & Gerry’s.  I blew a radiator hose a few days ago, but while it was in the shop I asked them to look at why the steering is so stiff.  It turns out the entire rack and pinion steering system was worn out.  Total cost for replacing all those parts and repairing the cooling system: a little under $2000.00.

The steering is now a lot more responsive, easier to handle.  It was like a stubborn mule before, having to strong-arm it to turn.  Now, all is well.

Mary’s TD passbooks

I wrote an email, last known address, to Mary telling her of my Mom’s TD account set up for her long ago.  The email bounced back.

Too many unfortunate events in the world, powered by lies, greed, pride, selfishness.

Sadness.

downloadable

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had this discussion with credit card companies.  “I want to download the transactions made,” I say.  “Yes,” they say, “you can download statements online.”  “No,” I say, “I don’t want statements.  I want transactions, downloadable into my accounting software, Microsoft Money.”  “That’s the same thing.  All the transactions are listed on the statement.  Isn’t that the same thing?”  “Ah!” I exclaim. “No!  I don’t want PDFs!  I want the transactions!”  “Oh – … you can get the statements and then just type it into your program,” they offer.

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another one bites the dust (HBC Neo MC)

I cancelled another credit card – this time HBC’s Neo MasterCard.  Why?  I think 24% is a bit excessive, don’t you?  As well, I can’t download transactions into Microsoft Money (my accounting software).

You’d be surprised at how many banking / credit card people who don’t know the difference between transactions and statementsTransactions are they actual purchases, payments, charges, etc. that one incurs, downloadable as digital whatnots that financial or spreadsheet software can read.  Statements are paper or PDFs that you can download to view the transactions of a given period.

Scotiabank, Home Depot, HBC Neo, and Walmart MasterCard all have no downloadable transactions.  So, I rarely use them … except for Scotiabank because they give me a sweet interest rate.