The Cursed Debit Card

I was at Walmart last night to look for a workout video (if you're laughing to yourself right now, I won't be insulted) and of course, as always, I found a cart full of other stuff to buy, but no workout video. Fine. By the time I got to the register, the store was about to close. I loaded all of my purchases on the belt and the cashier was perfectly friendly and quick and I thought I was actually going to get out of there with no hassle...until I ran my debit card through the machine and the lady handed me back $40.00. How nice, a gift with purchase. Yeah, right. I told the lady that I didn't ask for any cash back, but she just looked confused and told me there was nothing she could do, that I authorized a cash back transaction for $40.00, and there was my money and there was my receipt, so what was I complaining about. Humph. Not a big deal, my credit union is just five minutes away, I figured I would just make a quick run over to put the money back in my account. I don't ever carry cash...it's too easy to spend and too easy to lose. I drove right over and stuck my debit card in the ATM, where the screen instantly went blank, and then black, and then ate my card. Arghhh! On the one hand, now I'm glad I have forty dollars because it's Friday night and I won't have any access to my money until Monday, on the other hand, I wouldn't be in this predicament at all if the lady at Walmart hadn't decided for me that I was authorizing a money back transaction.

To top it all off, when I called the bank this morning, the lady gave me a hard time about cancelling my card and sending me a new one. She seemed to think her idea of just waiting for the ATM service personnel to find it and decide to send it back me via the US Postal Service was a fine solution, where I thought the idea of cancelling that card and sending me a new one was a better one. I did win out, but not before I got a little attitude from her...like I meant for the machine to eat my card and screw up my next 7-10 business days...hello!?