Paying the Rent

February 5, 2009

We have deposited money in our credit union account in order to be able to wire rent to our landlady. By the way, the credit union fees are substantially lower than those of our bank. Tonight, I logged on to the credit union, moved to the Move Money page, and clicked on “international” transfers. There was a rather long set of instructions noting, among other things, that to verify international wires, a representative of the credit union would call to confirm. Of course the fact that I am not at my home number to receive such a call did concern me. Nevertheless, I started entering bank codes and routing numbers, but soon the automatic timeout feature closed the site. I started again, this time a little more concerned about whether they would be able to confirm this transfer with me. I logged on again, hurriedly filled out the form. For phone number, I entered my cell in Israel. The final item was a box for comments, so racing against the clock, I explained my predicament and pushed “send.” An error message chided me that the 12 digit phone number I had entered (complete with the international code for Israel) was not an acceptable phone number. I started thinking about other ways to pay the rent, as I again logged on and re-entered the information, this time with our home number and then a soulful plea in the comment box, including my cell number and the advice that we are 7 hours ahead. Send. About 20 minutes into this undertaking and not at all confident that this wire could be confirmed, I looked up the credit union telephone number, the ATT toll free access number (recommended by the credit union for calls from abroad), picked up the calling card that I had purchased at the airport when we arrived, gathered together the documents for the accounts and banking numbers, and stood up to go to the corner pay phone. At that moment, not 2 minutes after I had pushed the "send" button, I was jarred by the high-pitched, piercing, metronomic ring of my cell phone.
“Hello, may I speak to Mr. Margolis?”
“Speaking,” I replied.
In a charming North Carolina accent, I heard, “This is Crystal from the credit union to confirm your wire. I’d like to have you answer some security questions? Is that o.k.?”
Oh ye of little faith.