AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArgh!

Trying to be a responsible person, I call my bank, and one existing credit card company to tell them I will be spending money in other places than Podunk, California. If you don't tell them, they freeze your card, then you can't spend your hard earned credit on cheesy touristy things like chocolate Eiffel Towers and french t shirts that were made in Wisconsin. (you think I kid. I will have to blog that story sometime.)
So the credit card company was great. Yeah, sure no, problem, Mz. M, making a note right here. Even let me talk to the fraud dept so they could verify with me that I'd be gone.
The bank? Sucks. Idiot man on the other end of the phone tells me that it doesn't matter where I use the card. If they think its odd, they'll freeze my account at their whim. But, here's the phone number you can call, from DC and NY to get unfrozen! Jackass. Then, proceeds to tell me that I was signed up with a rewards program for using my ATM card. So, I go to the web address to check this out. I didn't know I'd signed up for anything, but, hey. We can all use anything free, right? Or perceived as free. Well, the computer site won't let me in, so I let my fingers do the walking again (anyone else remember that phone commercial? Its a snap!)and now I get idiot woman on the phone. She tells me that I have 2 thousand some odd points, but the account was closed in 2005. So, what do I do then? Nothing, she sez. And offers to transfer me back to the GENERAL banking line. I just hung up, frustrated. Maybe later, when I am not irritable (sometime, next year?) I will call back and DEMAND my 2000 some odd points, and find out why that account is closed when Idiot Man told me I was enrolled. Meanwhile. I'm going to the store. And I'm NOT using my ATM card! Bastards.