Preauthorized Payments

This instance made me wonder the wisdom of signing up those preauthorized payment plans at the bank.

Many years ago, our friend got an early visit from the jolly Mr. Claus.

Like many other people, our friend had this bank paid all his bills. By a stroke of a pen, he gave his banker authority to use the money in his account to pay off his various personal obligations when due. This arrangement did save our friend a lot of times. It worked out well for years until one day when he noticed his telephone bills were a couple of months in arrears.

After many phone calls and personal visits to the bank, my friend was told without any explanation that someone else had been paying his phone bills in the past. It is apparent that payment had since stopped.

In this case, our friend was the unwitting recipient of these errant payments. We could not stop laughing when hearing of our friend’s good fortunate and asked him what he had done to deserve an early Christmas gift. But seriously, our friend could also be on the giving side of this foolproof banking arrangement. - Ayee.