Last week I did something I hadn’t done in years: I ordered more checks.
We ran out of checks primarily because we have been doing some renovations to our house, so we’ve been writing checks to contractors. We’ve written more checks in the last three months than we wrote in the last three years. Checks for flooring. Checks for drywall. Checks for plumbing. Checks for paint.
Had I realized how close I was to running out of checks, I could have ordered them online, but I didn’t realize it until I was writing the last check – and I was going to need another check the very next day (to pay for cabinetry). So, I headed to the branch, where I knew I could get a few temporary checks while placing the order.
I told the teller I needed new checks, and when he looked up the information, that’s when he realized something I hadn’t noticed while I was writing all those checks: they still had our old address on them. We moved a good three years ago.
While he corrected the information, placed the order and printed up some temporary checks for me, I told him about the renovations and how I hadn’t written so many checks in years.
Here’s what didn’t come up in that conversation: the fact that we did not take out any sort of loan to pay for these renovations.
Now, presumably he could see that I didn’t have any sort of HELOC, but that should have been all the more reason to ask, right? What if we had one at another credit union (we belong to two) or a bank? What if he had asked me about taking out a loan?
My chit chat could have been a chance to sell me a loan -- in fact, given what I do for a living, I went in expecting to be sold, but it didn’t happen.
What opportunities will you miss out on today?
Editor in Chief Lisa Freeman can be reached at lisa.freeman@sourcemedia.com.
