Apartment doormen, porters, and maintenance staff expect tips around Christmas. Ours do a wonderful job greeting us, helping us resolve any issues, and sorting through all the Amazon packages that arrive every day and getting them to the right person. Sheila and I planned to tip them, but when we tried to withdraw cash to put in Holiday cards for them, we ran into some trouble.
A rash of ATM fraud/theft in NYC has caused a bank crackdown on ATM card use that is out of the ordinary. Apparently, using an ATM card from a small Virginia bank in Manhattan bank ATMs is one of those out of the ordinary circumstances. Usually a quick call to the bank’s fraud department or customer service department resolves the issue. They get comfortable that it is actually me using the ATM and not a crook. But, every time I would try to use the ATM, another fraud alert would be triggered and “No Cash For You” resulted. This happened seven times. Seven times happens to be the charm. I think they’re now convinced that it’s me. Hopefully, no more cash woes, and no fraud. And, our apartment personnel will be happy.