Funny Money Joke

A few years ago, Washington Mutual made a gianormous advertising stink about ATM fees. Billboards and tv commercials everywhere shoved the notion that "the buck-fifty stops here" down our throats.

What they meant is that any non-WaMu customer that used their ubiquitous ATMs could do so for freeeeeeeeeee! They did NOT mean that their loyal banking customers--should they find themselves without a WaMu-friendly money machine nearby--could use any other banks' ATMs without fees. That's right, their bullshit ad campaign wasn't directed at the poor schlubs they'd already convinced to join their corporate coven, but at the people who now had no incentive to change banks. Since they could pull their money out from just about anywhere without sin.

That pissed me off the first time I realized the yellow&blue had charged me to use some random ATM. That probably charged me its own fee too. Fuckers.

And now, they've changed their fickle minds again. Oh, they will still charge me to use a foreign machine. But now they'll also charge you. That's right, all those billboards and tv ads--that probably cost a pretty penny and that's why my savings account gains no interest--were a colossal waste of money!

(A little internet research just proved that this isn't new, but happened in late 2005. That's okay, bitching never goes out of style.)