Confessions of a "Poor Woman"

I have never been so emotionally defeated by money before, and I also have never been drastically affected by the word OFFLINE either, until today. I woke up knowing that the only money I have left that I have been waiting to clear in my unionbank bank account finally cleared last night. I saved the only 15 pesos I have left to be able to commute from my home to the nearest bank this morning, knowing that I will be coming back home with an adequate amount of money to buy food until pay day on Thursday, but I could never have been more wrong.

I woke up and got ready to go to the bank this morning in a cheerful mood, I even brought along my daughter to accompany me. My First Stop - RCBC Savings Bank ATM - through the very unclear monitor of the ATM my first attempt at withdrawal failed. OOPS, RCBC Savings is not linked with Megalink, My bad. So I went inside RFC to go the BPI ATM and viola the machine is currently Broken, stuck on a page where it said, please take receipt. Then I went to BDO ATM, finally a machine that was working perfectly fine and with a readable screen, I tried to withdraw and the machine told me, Account Temporarily Inaccesible Please contact your Bank. So that’s when I decided to spend another 8 pesos that I was able to rummage from my bag and go to Unionbank. As I was heading to the ATM the words OFFLINE flashed in front of my eyes, and I feel so inconvenienced I was ready to retaliate. I asked the guard how long the ATM will be offline, and he said they don’t have an idea. I asked if it affects all ATM transactions and not just this machine, they said its a network Offline, so I cannot withdraw from ANY ATM. I went inside to ask if I can do an over the counter transaction instead, they said NO, because all systems are OFFLINE. I asked them if they were able to give out NOTICES to all their Customers about this, because like me, a person counting on that particular money, on that particular day, to be able to buy food to cook and to eat may be heavily inconvenienced. They said NO, they only knew about the System OFFLINE this morning. I was ready to cry.

There I was, holding my daughters hand, it already started raining outside, no money in my pockets, and this bank personnel telling me that I can’t withdraw the only money I have left to buy food and to commute home. I felt defeated, stressed and distressed, but there was nothing I could do. I sat down a little bit and rummaged through my bag, perhaps I could find more coins to allow myself and my daughter a comfortable tricycle ride home. I found the 10 Singapore Dollars that Noel gave me as a souvenir when Nike and I were leaving Singapore. A blessing it truly was. Nike and I walked from Unionbank back to our original destination RCBC Bank - Crossed the Street to BDO and just beside that A money changer, Our savior, the 10 Dollars was exchanged to 300 pesos.

I have never felt so bad in my life, the way that I felt during that time. I felt helpless and all I could think about was where will I find the money to buy food? Are we going to walk from here all the way home? I was penniless and frustrated. I felt angry at unionbank that they would have me go through this, I had money. They have it, unfortunately it was OFFLINE — with no real notice for the inconvenience they are causing the life of their customers.

Thanks to the souvenir money I was able to buy food, it will only last for the whole day, so I have tomorrow to worry about. I hope tomorrow I can get my money from the bank.