June04

(Try To) Check Here If New Address

Remember a couple of months ago, when I moved? I sure do. It’s not like it wasn’t a big deal. I had to pack boxes, rent a moving truck, coerce friends into helping me move all my stuff up two flights of stairs, unpack, and, most importantly, make sure that all of my utilities and bills were notified of my new address.

The easiest way to do that is to make a giant checklist and just go down the list, one-by-one.

Simple enough. And I’ll tell ya, I’d say that works about 99% of the time. The people you owe money to definitely want to keep tabs on you, so it’s in their best interest to make sure they’re open to you changing your address. Remember, that’s only 99% of the time.

The other 1%, also known as State Farm Bank, obviously doesn’t care.

A while back, I opened a new credit card account with State Farm Bank to consolidate debt to a low-interest card. Good idea. Unfortunately, you can’t pay bills online with State Farm Bank (from their web site). Bad idea. That means that I still receive a monthly statement and write them a check.

It took a little bit longer than normal to receive my statement when I first moved. That’s because, even though I had changed my address on their web site, the statement was still sent to my old address. I didn’t think much of it since I had recently moved, surely by the next month it would all be straightened out. But just to make sure, when I sent my payment in, I checked the box that said "check here if new address." I turned the statement over, filled in the new address and sent it in.

The next month brought the same issue. My statement was sent to the old address. This time, I checked the box (sent it in) and even double-checked the web site to make sure the address was correct – it was.

So what happened last month? THE SAME DAMN THING. The statement was sent to my old address. Once again, I checked the web site (new address) and filled out the statement with the new address. This time, I added a Post-it® note that said, “NEW ADDRESS,” and drew an arrow to the address. In addition, I circled the return address on the envelope with a blue Sharpie®, and also marked it, “NEW ADDRESS.”

I’ve yet to receive this month’s statement, but it’s already a few days later than normal (normal being about six months ago). Here’s the odd thing, the past four days in a row, I’ve received address correction slips from State Farm Bank. Here’s the summary of each:

1. You changed your address from Old Address to New Address – dated 5-25-06
2. You changed your address from New Address Apt X to New Address #X – dated 5-25-06
3. You changed your address from Old Address to New Address – dated 5-26-06
4. You changed your address from New Address Apt X to New Address #X – dated 5-26-06

Yes, you read that correct, two sets of identical “address changes” dated 1.5 weeks ago.

Moral of the story:

1. State Farm Bank’s web site, and your account there, has no correlation to your bills (even though, when/if you change your password, State Farm Bank sends you a letter saying you did so – that letter comes to your correct address).
2. If you have insurance AND a credit card account with State Farm, they will send you separate bills to two different addresses (even though, on the State Farm Bank web site, it shows all of your accounts – it knows that you’re spanning accounts, but doesn’t care).
3. The only way to effectively change your address with State Farm Bank is to either use a Post-it note or a blue Sharpie. Or both.

+ original post date: June 4, 2006 11:26 AM
+ categories: Dwellings, WTF