My Fight Back – Changing Bank Accounts
Often we find ourselves in situations where we need to take urgent action. If we don’t then things could escalate and our lives could become really difficult.
In these instances fear can raise its head and one of two things can happen – we freeze and do nothing or we find the motivation to face fear and take action.
Talking to someone you trust can put on the first rung of the ladder to getting things done.
Recently, due to security reasons, I had to discontinue usage of a long-held, bank account. One which I was familiar with using – especially online. It had spending history over many years that I could refer to if I needed to do so.
It was my household account and has the Direct Debits and Standing Orders of all my bills and accounts for running my home.
The bank couldn’t remove the other – recently added – person from the account without their consent/signature, and they refused to sign/consent. So, there was a fait accompli. I had to close it and open a new account!
Now, normally this would be quite straight forward, but in this instance, I had to transfer ALL the Direct Debits and Standing Orders across! The bank only does this for accounts which are being transferred from another bank, but not for new accounts with the same bank.
Fear came out and began to Bully me.
I can’t do it!’; ‘It’s too hard!‘… ‘I’m going to do it all wrong!‘… ‘I’m going to miss some people!’… ‘There’s going to be problems when they’re not paid and this is going to be a huge problem to fix it!‘… ‘I can’t remember them all and I don’t think I have up-to-date details to make the change!’
All these thoughts & more floated around in my head and sent the fear down to my guts where it stirred vigorously, getting bigger and bigger…and I couldn’t delay doing something! In the meantime, the delay itself was adding to the fear, as anxiety of abuse of the account by the other person was added into the mix.
My daughter came to visit and insisted that I contacted the bank again. They were helpful as much as they could, given that their hands were tied in relation to removing the other person from the account or transferring the DDs and SOs. I was given an appointment for the next day & assurance to help me with the transfer of the DDs & SOs.
They would allow me to use their telephone and a small room, as well as downloading the Direct Debits & Standing Orders, so I’d know what/who they were as well as their phone numbers.
As I expected, opening the new account was easy & straightforward; I was able to see it immediately online…And, what I was most concerned about, I use the same security checks to access the account.
Phew!….My first Punch To Fear…
The surprising thing for me was that once this happened, and I was given the list of payees, that the fear began to diminish; the churning in my stomach began to ease…Amazing!
I was told that I could then move into a small room with a telephone to start making the calls and that someone will be on hand to help me if I get stuck. But…I looked at the list, and suddenly it hit me…’I can do this myself at home!’ And I did just that!
It took me 2 days…But I did it! Some payees had online facilities on their accounts to change payment methods, which were quite easy. Others, whose websites didn’t make it easy to navigate, had the ‘chat’ facility and i just chatted to them, told them what I wanted & they did it online for me & emailed me to confirm that it’s done.
Others only had access 9 – 5 weekdays so I had to wait until the next day. I also managed to change one from a Direct Debit to a Standing Order, so that I had more control over it.
So…Fear Got A Beating and I felt like a Champion afterwards.
Next step – closing the old account and this was easy too. I was instructed how to close the old account once I’d transferred everything from it and the balance was zero…Easy peasy and a piece of cake! The old account just disappeared…no longer operable and I received a message from the bank confirming my request to close the account too.
So, the Bully Fear that told me…
I can’t do it…Well, I could and did so, with ease
It’s too hard… Not so; it was much easier than I thought
I’m going to do it all wrong…I took my time and double-checked everything
I’m going to make mistakes…Not a problem, if I did they were easily fixed
I can’t remember them all …I certainly remembered them, even those the bank left off the list too!
I don’t have up to date information on all the payees to make correct changes …well, once the old account was closed, the bank notified all of them. They all contacted me, so I had the chance to rectify any errors made during the changeover.
YES! I fought back and gave fear a knock out punch…Boom! He’d down and out.
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References
www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/recovery-road/201405/what-is-fear
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/29/health/science-of-fear/index.html
https://kriscarr.com/blog/how-to-overcome-fear
www.paulekeman.com/universal-emotions/what-is.fear
https://m.wikihow.com/Stop-Living-in-Fear
Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
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