credit card woes

On Thursday, my credit card stopped working. I managed to buy something at around 1pm in the arvo, but when I went to pay for dinner later that night, my credit card was declined. Tried it again, same result. It was no big deal at the time, I had cash on me anyway. Got home, and went onto my online banking website and what was my credit card account seemed to have disappeared. Went to the bank on Friday morning to sort it out, and it turns out that the account had been frozen because of two suspicious transaction attempts of around $84 in a row, which wasn't approved by the bank or something like that. I was quite impressed at how they managed to figure out that it was someone else trying to use my credit card details - apparently they're onto it like a hawk and closely monitor for any suspicious irregularities, and if they spot them they give you a phone call to confirm whether you made those transactions. I hadn't received a phone call at all, though the bank was apparently in contact with me. Anyway, I will need to call the bank on Monday to contest the transactions or something like that, and then by Friday I should have a new credit card with new numbers etc. Though that means that I have to live off actual money, but that's cool, I have enough to get through a week in my savings.

Last night I was down at the local Blockbuster to get some DVDs, but found that I didn't have much on me, so I figured I may as well get some money out from the ATM. Went to withdraw money in the usual fashion, and what do you know - the ATM decides to keep my card, leaving me a receipt with the message "Your financial institution has prohibited transactions on your card. Your card has been retained by this ATM". Ironically, just beneath this it says "THANK YOU FOR BANKING WITH US". You see, I had my savings account linked to my credit card - I used my credit card for both my credit and savings accounts. So, now I only have $9.20 to get me through the week. I mean, sure, I could probably easily go to the bank and get some money out or something like that, but that means effort, even though there is a branch near me open on the weekends. I think its just more fun to see how long this $9.20 will last me. Can't be long, I only have half a tank of fuel left...

In non-banking news, its only two more weeks until I get a nice long break. Ten days of work left for the year. Shame its gonna be a busy two weeks. I'm kinda looking forward to just bumming around and doing nothing for a lot of it. It would really be nice to kick up my feet and do nothing. After all, its what I do best. I am swinging by Melbourne for a week though, everything is booked (done when I still had a credit card of course) and I'm looking forward to the trip, except for the bit involving catching up with Raffy. If you're reading this, I'm kidding dude, please don't drive me out to the middle of nowhere and leave me there to rot and die, work won't be too pleased with you. Besides Melbourne, I don't really have anything else planned for the long break, though there will definitely be a lot of beach visits.