Money access and traveling

One of my credit cards expired while I was in Florida. Even though my mail gets forwarded, credit cards are not and are returned to the bank.

Since I'm back in New Hampshire I decided to walk into my local credit union and get a new card. Here's the deal, my daughter suggested we could stay at the house they bought for an investment. It's being renovated, but the heat is on, the appliances work, and it's actually pretty comfortable. That way I can leave my house closed up as we will shortly be heading back to Florida. Right now my mail is being forwarded to my daughter's house. With my house still closed up I don't want to drive 30 miles every day just to pick up the mail.

I went into the credit union and asked if I could pick up the card right here. No problem, but it would be at least 10 business days. There's a fair chance I'd be back on the road before the card came in. Fine. For a fee they could expedite the process and it'd only take a few days. The card came in and I picked it up.

Then it got interesting. To activate the card I needed to call from my home phone. My home phone is through Vonage and needs the Internet to function. To save money I've suspended the Internet service until spring. No Internet, no phone.

While still in the credit union I had them change my primary number to my cell phone number. Before leaving the teller I called and made sure the card was activated. The only problem is that eventually I'm gong to have to get the phone number changed back to my Vonage number. There is no cell phone service at my house. During the spring and summer I can go weeks without using a cell phone.

While waiting for all this to go through the teller shared a story about her father. He's been living in South America for years, yet still uses his New Hampshire credit union. The daughter's place is listed as her father's legal address. His new cards come to her house. She mails them to South America. He calls her when he gets them in hand. Her home phone is also listed as her dad's number. She calls in the activation and then lets him know his cards are good to go.

My personal business is still more complicated than it should be. Since we'll be spending considerable time away on our little sailboat, I'm going to have to find better solutions. At least I'm home part of the year. It's easy to hang up the phone on someone. When I'm physically in their building, they have to deal with me.

-Sixbears