Dealingwith change is problematic in a credit cardworld

A recent series of unfortunate events has led to something I'd never again need to handle. Coins.

The first unfortunate event was a letter from my credit card company saying it was sending me a new card. I ignored that, because I was perfectly happy with my current card. And getting a new one would require notifying all the accounts for whom I use credit card autopay.

So I threw the letter away and forgot about it until the second unfortunate event. Which was an email notice that my semiannual car and homeowner's insurance premium was overdue, because my autopay's credit card had expired.

I didn't ignore that, because I was pretty sure that 10 minutes after the insurance lapsed I would lose control of my car and ram it into a tree in the front yard. Which then would topple over and crush our house. And our other car in the garage.

So I immediately contacted the credit card company, which confirmed my card no longer was valid and I should have responded to that letter it sent me last month about the new card.

Which led to the third unfortunate event.

Because, while I waited for my new credit card to arrive, all my transactions would have to be with cash. Which meant I would have to GET some, because the only cash I had was a couple of $5 bills I carry for things such as tipping at the carwash.

That meant I had to go to the bank and withdraw cash, because I don't have a debit card and I don't ATM. Every other kidnapping you read about involves victims being taken to the nearest ATM and forced to withdraw all their money. Besides, I don't knowwhere my ATM card is. I do have a second credit card, but I never use it because it has an interest rate of approximately 4,000%. And I'm not sure where I put it, either.

So for the past week I've had to use cash for my purchases, every one of which resulted in a minimum of 89 cents in change from young cashiers who needed to use calculators to figure how many coins to give me.

Now I have coins in my pockets, coins in my car's cupholder, coins in drawers and I have no use for any of them; vending machines don't sell much for under a dollar anymore and even parking meters are transitioning to plastic.

Maybe I should put all those coins in a box and mail them as payment on my next bill from the credit card money that started this whole series of unfortunate events in the first place.