A couple of months ago, my husband went to our credit union to order checks. We did not pay much attention to this common task and his order just rested in the back of our minds. Ordering new checkbook for your bank account is not all that difficult but somehow, we managed to find ourselves in a pickle very quickly. We simply did not follow up on our order and we did not have our lines of communication open.

The issues began when I opened the check account to pay for tires we bought through our local mechanic. There were no checks. I told the mechanic, who gets a lot of business though our poor cars, that I would be right back to give him his payment. I got home and found that there were no checks left in the book. I literally tore the house apart looking for the checks ordered a few months ago.

I freaked out and contacted my husband at his job. I never call there and it’s usually something very important when I do. He assured me that he went to our financial instituion to order checks months ago. I asked him if we got them in the mail and was struck by silence. “Didn't you get them,” he finally said. “Well I didn’t order checks, so I wasn’t looking for checks in the mail.”

I remembered going on the internet to order checks, but we had just moved and I wasn’t able to fix up our new street location while ordering new checks. This made perfect sense to me and I was glad that our bank was concerned about our security. This is when I sent my husband to the bank for the check order. I was beginning to remember everything about the order. I just couldn’t understand why on earth I didn’t think to look for them. Time just passed by so quickly. The next thing I know blubbering to my mechanic with an empty checkbook.

I called the bank and our usual teller said that she remembered that my husband had come in to order checks a long time ago and we definitely should have gotten them by now. Again, my imagination went wild and I began to get a little angry. Who on earth would take checks from a struggling, new blue collar family? We have a baby and we have a mortgage. We really don’t have enough funds to make stealing from us worthwhile. Then I heard the teller’s sweet voice, “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I inverted one of the numbers in the account and your check order was rejected. I didn’t know.”

I was absolyuely let off the hook to hear about a mistake in my life. We will continue to order checks through our bank. Our favorite teller is extra careful with numbers and we are extra careful to make sure that we follow up on our check orders. As for the paranoia, I’m still working on that.