Temporarily Unavailable. Any other plan in place?

TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE

When I planned for a trip to town yesterday, I only considered a one-way plan. I was mindlessly charging forward towards an atm machine. What I saw took me by surprise. Not that it isn't expected that sometimes atm machines do maintenance. It was covered with a paper stating, ‘TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE.’ I reluctantly went a little further away in order to withdraw. It’s a good thing that the lack of alternative plan, or what they call contingency plan, didn’t affect me so much. I just rode in a jeepney in order to go to another atm machine. And instead of grocery shopping at my first choice grocery shop, I went to an alternative grocery store. Not really that bad. But if only...

EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER

But the experience reminded me to always plan ahead in case original plan wouldn’t meet the current demands of the situations or circumstances. Even the seemingly very convenient e-merchants will have their maintenance from time to time. A solution is to be kept informed. We have to always be mindful about when you will have your transactions.

Just last Friday, I used the Pesonet in transferring my money from Coins.ph to my bank. Usually, when using Pesonet, even though it states that the money will arrive at the destination account the next day, for as long as it is not weekends or holidays the next day, the money will be on the bank account earlier than expected. But if you transacted on a Friday, you will have to really wait for your money on a Monday. Because of that, before using Pesonet, I always need to check the day and dates. But since I already used the Pesonet even before realizing what day it was last Friday, I had no choice but to wait for my money. I exercised my patience.

When suddenly your plan doesn’t work, you should always consider few alternatives. Otherwise, you will be left frustrated over things that you cannot do about. When I went to withdraw on that particular internet, my mind was only expecting to be successful in obtaining money. If only I expected that possibility of it being temporarily unavailable, then I would have been more wholehearted in going to look for other atm machines. The others who saw me disappointed might have laughed discreetly because of my desperation. It is a good thing that I was able to decide right there and then to look for other machines.

There is never a formula for smooth living. We always needed to do our best in order to make our life smooth and convenient. Not considering alternative plans will set us on defensive mode. Be sure to always have contingency plans. The first time I heard about contingency plans, or more properly, the first time I read was thru a novel. It lectured that we must always have one in place. How many people have been saved the inconvenience because of the contingency plan? Surely, a many. And it cannot be denied.

Is there such thing as always available? There maybe but for a certain amount of time only. There will always be the temporary unavailable notice and meantime, we can only do what we can in order to make things better.

I always experience problems when it came to atm withdrawals. Because of that, I needed to roam around town in search for atm machines who are still willing to give me money. Most of the time, it will cost me a fifth of a hundred pesos to use a machine which is not owned by the bank I entrusted my money with. But at least, I was still able to withdraw yesterday and was able to buy the things I wrote on my list.

One thing I do to add more options is having more than one type of card. If a card fails, I have an alternative card. No, I am talking only about debit cards. I only own one credit card which actually is a nonbank one. But yes, the credit card is another alternative for cash. But a caution is given for credit card users. Only spend what you can afford to pay, as they say. It applies as well with credit card users. If you aren’t careful, you’ll have used all of your credit limit before you knew it. And if it is your first time holding a card, then all the more that you should be vigilant with how you spend the alternative for cash.