Goodbye, WaMu

It's taken me two years to say goodbye to Washington Mutual. I held on for as long as I could, and longer than most. Today I finally activated my new, blue, rewards-earning Chase debit card. Now I'm sitting here with the shiny new card next to my old and trusty WaMu gold card. Why is this so hard for me? First the T-Mobile account, then the Oregon phone number, and now this. I'm not sure how I held on this long to the card, but when Chase first bought Washington Mutual way back when, I was told by the teller at the local branch that I would not be issued a new card until mine expired (which would have been next year). Every now and then I'd get an interesting comment from a waitress or bank teller, but no one ever forced me to switch. But then I heard about this new card, which would reward me for the money I was already spending. Easy decision.

And now I'm thinking about my history with Washington Mutual. It hadn't always been easy and care-free. In fact, we separated ways for a while. My first contact with WaMu was in first grade when my school had a school savings program. Once a week a very nice man would come in and help us deposit money into our account, and then record it in this GIGANTIC register. I would normally put in fifty cents, or some other small number, but would get a neat pair of neon shoe laces or sunglasses in return. Those were the good days... But then came a day when I wanted to open a checking account. I was in middle school I think, and was denied by WaMu due to my lack of an income (duh). So I withdrew, closed down, and high-tailed it over to the credit union, where they didn't discriminate against adolescents.

After a few years, I went back to WaMu for a second account (I can't remember why off hand), but I had been with them ever since. When I heard that Chase had bailed them out, I was a bit sad that I would now be a Chase customer. WaMu was a Seattle-based bank, and thus my Northwest ties were tight. But I've learned that Chase is pretty awesome, and there are branches EVERYWHERE down here.

I guess all of this crazy attachment could be analyzed by some psych somewhere, and they would probably tell me I have attachment issues. Psshhh. Whatev. I'm just loyal. A true-blue (gasp!), loyal person.