Personal Finance Advice

You’re already having a bad day when you step into the bank, and the long lines for the teller don’t make things any better.  As you make your way to the head of the line your annoyance culminates into a bad attitude that you bestow upon the teller, who in turn helps you with your transactions and tries really hard to remain pleasant despite your snippy demeanor. You leave without so much as a “thank you” to the teller and go about the rest of your day.  A week or so later you’re surprised to find several errors on your bank account, and oddly enough they all seemed to occur on the very same day that you had such a lousy attitude at the bank.

The moral of the story is this: You try to be pleasant to restaurant servers since they handle your food, so using this same logic you should probably be pleasant to the people who have direct access to your money.

Of course, the vast majority of bank tellers and customer representatives know how to handle rude customers.  They certainly don’t all fiddle with the accounts of irate people, just like not all servers spit into the food of customers who are mean.  On the other hand, there are customer service representatives that don’t do well with rudeness, and may take it personally and retaliate by moving some funds around or tacking on fees.  Although these fees will inevitably be recognized as being in error, even the smallest mischief from a financial institution insider can cause chaos with your overall personal financial situation.

You should always do your best to be nice to people just as a life rule - after all, remember the Golden Rule - but if you need an extra incentive to be nice then think about what can happen to your bank and credit accounts if you make the wrong person angry.

Sometimes it’s difficult to maintain a friendly demeanor, especially if you’re calling or visiting the branch because of some error that has occurred on your account.  You might be angry and frustrated, but try not to take it out on the first person you encounter.  You can be clear and intentional without being mean.  It’s okay to be angry at the situation, but it’s not okay to take that anger out on the person who is trying to help you.   

Treat people how you want to be treated, and don’t tick off the people who have access to your money.