Headaches, Part I

Spring semester: day fourteen 

My paycheck stuff has been solved, though the solution is far from ideal, and more problems and issues have popped up in the meantime.

I will pick up a paper check on Tuesday when I go to campus. It's there, it's ready now, and despite my queries and hopes, there's no way whatsoever it can be direct-deposited, as it's an advance check. I told the payroll people my checking account situation and how inconvenient this entire situation is anyhow (read: hey, look, I shouldn't have to be dealing with this shit in the first place) and they told me that I should take the check to cash it at check-cashing places or grocery stores around town -- completely ignoring the fact that I need it deposited, not cashed. That check has to pay my bills and rent, which I can't do with cash.

Here's how, apparently, it's going to work -- I got all the information I could from a few emails back and forth this afternoon:

1. This check is basically both a make-up check and an advance check at once -- I'm getting paid for the missed 1/31 paydate as well as the current pay cycle through today...the cycle that ends on the 14th. That means it's not two full pay cycles, but rather 1.5. This also means this paper check I get on Tuesday will be a large one.
   
2. This also means that I will completely skip the payday of the 14th, as I've now been covered for the first half of it already. I'm not completely thrilled about this, but keep reading.
   
3.  On the first full pay cycle after that (read: the check I'll get on the 28th) I'll get paid normally, minus the advance amount on this check I'll pick up on Tuesday. They've called this a "3 in 1" check, as the amount before the advance is rectified is, in essence, 3 entire pay periods since I will have not had a "normal" payroll disbursement before then. The amount I'll get on the 28th before they adjust it would be my normal amount, plus the normal amount for the 14th minus the amount of the advance check. My checks are normally about $620, so think of it this way -- if my advance check is 1.5 that, it'll be $930ish. $620 + $620 - $930 advance = $310. I should get a check of about $310 on the 28th. This balances out mathematically, and I'm getting the same amount I'd normally get on three checks in two instead -- one big one on the paper check, and a small one at the end of the month direct-deposited normally.
   
4. Taxes have already been noted and taken care of so that I'm not overpaying on  them due to the different check amounts/sizes, and they should be balanced out evenly -- probably without any real notice to me.
   
5. My remaining checks are split up evenly from the next pay period after the 28th, forward -- I'll get six normal paychecks after that, every two weeks, starting on March 14 and running until May 23, as the payroll situation with them has been set and rectified.

Of course, while I am very relieved that this has been fixed, no, it's not an overly ideal situation. It can't be helped, of course -- and I am still getting paid the same amount I would normally (just in different amounts at different times). Daisy performed the wire transfer this morning so that I could pay my bills that will be due before I get the money from that paper check into my account one way or another, so that relieves me a bit as well -- but effectively, I will be going another week without any more money than that in my bank account, I won't be able to have a big-time, fun Valentine's Day with Daisy because I won't be able to afford anything until that money gets into my account, and when it does, the vast majority of it must go towards bills at the end of the month even before I get that smaller check on the 28th. This basically means that, with this schedule, I'm still going to be basically broke until the regular checks start coming in...five weeks from now. I'll be able to pay my bills, but won't be able to afford anything else -- nothing extra. No extra food, no extra luxuries, no extra anything. It's a scheduling issue, not a money issue.

As for that paper check, I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. Mailing it home for deposit would add another week, roughly, until I had access to it -- and that's if my parents got it and deposited it the same day they got it. Another option is, of course, to cash it, and see how many of my bills for the rest of the month I could pay in person or with money orders, if necessary, though that's a bigger pain in the ass overall than just mailing it off to be deposited.

And then I thought of something: Daisy.

Daisy is coming down on Wednesday, the day after I'll pick up the check. Daisy has done two wire transfers for me in the past month, and has told me how difficult they are to do via her own bank -- they involve actually going inside, filling out a form, signing said form, etc. This is just her bank, apparently -- like my own bank, her bank is archaic and outmoded when most transfers at most institutions, from account-to-account, can be done electronically or with a simple phone call. But, there would be a difference this time -- it wouldn't be account-to-account. It would be cash in hand to an account number.

Following me?

If all else fails, I could cash the check when Daisy's here -- cash it at Walmart or someplace, pay the $4 fee, it wouldn't matter, etc. I could give it to her, and she may, feasibly, be able to send that cash directly into my account via a wire transfer without having to do an account-to-account transfer. She mentioned something along those lines before, or an easier way to do it via the credit union she used to work for (and still has an account at, though she doesn't really use it for anything).

If that's possible, and she could do it, it would eliminate a week's waiting period and the worry about sending a high-amount check through the mail, having it arrive in WV, and then having my parents deposit it. I'd have the money, and access to it, within a day or two. But, of course, that would have to be feasible first.

The other option, which may be the easiest and quickest? Western Union lets you send money from anywhere directly into a bank account. I know this; I researched it. MoneyGram, which is Walmart's version of Western Union, may do the same thing, though I'm not sure. I could, feasibly, cash the check, take it to somewhere who does Western Unions (or hell, an actual Western Union hub) and possibly send it directly to my own bank account back home -- no muss, no fuss -- with the money arriving almost immediately.

I love it when a plan comes together.

My point is that it'll get taken care of one way or another, but not before some running around and finagling to get everything done and set right. But, of course, I do like having basically four different, distinct options here.