Thursday, October 18, 2007

Routing Number

My newest brush with technology started with an anguished call from an out-of-state friend of mine who will be referred to as butt-head - "Dave, buddy, I know I haven't talked to you in a while but I need a favor ..."

He wanted me to drive down and bail him out of jail. Considering the copious amount of free time I have had recently, I wasn't really interested taking a day of work to deal with this problem.

Enter the routing number. A routing number is the nine digit number on the bottom of your check that isn't your bank account number. This number uniquely identifies every bank in the U.S. and can be used, you guessed it, to transfer funds from one bank to another. I got the routing number of a bank near the courthouse and for the paltry fee of $20.00, my bank transferred funds to that bank and one of butt-head's closer but poorer friends and bail is paid without me driving anywhere.

Butt-head is doing fine, holding down two jobs to pay me back and waiting for his court date sometime next year.

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