"Just Surviving - You're Not Alone"

 

Who would have thought that I would find a song to express my blog today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r_ubcUd-gE

 

As I sit here fumbling through old documents and receipts to prepare for tax time 2013, I stumbled across several old calendar planners. Some with only a few pages written on, while others were filled in the months that I presume were very significant in our lives at that time. I can't help but notice what bills we had and the income that was coming in - where are those days now?  I can't help but feel that in this worldly economy, the worst is yet to come. Does anyone else agree? I know, not a very positive statement from the girl always pushing to be positive life is too short to be negative. Let’s face it; I'm only one in the gazillions of people in this world that are starting to fear what the future really does hold for them. Our credit score - SUCKS! And that is only the tip of the iceberg.  I won't pretend that all is well, and in fact it is just a matter of just getting by, but I can deal with that as we now have a plan. But let me start from the beginning on this financial horror story.

What I can't understand is the freedom that companies now believe they have when it comes to collecting monthly payments.  How many of you out there used online bill pay?  It's relatively easy, you set up the information and chose the day in which you entrust that a computer will collect and send your bill to whatever designated company you have indicated. For most, this works out rather well. Yet even if you pay your bills on time, there are still people out there who don’t and companies are doing their best to bring in the income. But what would you do if you learned that companies are finding a new way to say they have the right to call you asking for payment even if it is not due yet? That's right and they get away with it by saying, "This is a courtesy call about your payment."  I know when I first heard that line, the word courtesy didn't register and I suddenly felt obligated to whip out the checkbook and make a payment - my downfall.  Never let yourself fall for that line. As I spoke with a Representative, they ever so cleverly walked a fine line of wanting to say that I was late - which I wasn't, but their choice of words, that was very unnerving, quickly had me setting up a pay-by-phone payment, but soon found myself, on the day my online arrangement was set up, was also drafted from our account and caused it to be overdrawn. UGGGH!!!

I was surprised, but then realized that the error was on me for not cancelling the arrangement - however - the company did not see this as two months’ worth of payments and would not reverse either to retain the set budget that my family lives upon - and I felt the total fool, but a lesson learned. Now since this accident on my part, I am seeing a strong patter that has me believing that what happened next was only a matter of time - all my creditors were using this deceiving tactic. My phone rings off the hook with companies wanting to help me with a the so called “courtesy payment” for a payment pending that needs immediate attention on a bill that is still two weeks away from its due date - WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?  How can it be immediate attention needed if I still have two flippen weeks before its due!

 

What I'm thinking is that once I fell for the first trickery for payment, that company got on the phone and was like, "Hey, Hey, calling all Creditors! We found a Sucker! Start calling! You can get money out of that one!" We have gotten to a point that when we see these repeated numbers on our caller Id's, we either let it ring or our kids have fun with them and answer the phone as a fictitious company or better yet – a name well known. I think the best one was my older son answering the phone this way - "Good afternoon Pizza Hut, can I take your order?" Only a click was heard on the other end. Now I will be the first to admit that we all found this rather entertaining and believe we were finally getting our revenge - but the joke was on us when we realized one day that many of the calls were coming from our mortgage company and before we knew it we had foreclosure threats in the mailbox. Two words to describe our initial shock in reference to this situation - Oh FUDGE!

 

In 2006 we refinanced our mortgage from SunTrust Bank to Navy Federal Credit Union. We had been offered a great rate of 5.8% fixed VA Loan for 30 years. We were so happy with a great new rate and it got us out of our arm loan that we jumped at the chance and refinanced. On the day of our signing, there was information on our documents that were not discussed. We learned that our account had been set up as bi-weekly plan that was in the form of mandatory auto drafted payments. We had indicated to the lady that represented the title company, that we wanted a monthly payment to be drafted from my retirement check, and that we wanted a VA loan, to which she replied - "Not a problem, just call your bank after the three days that this funds and they'll change the payment schedule for you, but if you stay with the way it is set up, you end up paying it off quicker." If only her words had been completely true.

 

I wanted to share that tid-bit about our loan so that you'll understand the rest of my story. So anyways, in November, we are getting excited about our trip to New Hampshire for Thanksgiving. I have not seen my family in three years and a get together was long overdue. Needless to say, because of the financial fiasco that was about to shake our foundation, our trip was cancelled. Going on - As I was talking to my mother on the phone about our travel plans, there was a knock at our front door, that abuptly ended our happy plans. I was rather surprised to see my mailman standing there with thirteen largely stuffed envelopes all addressed from Navy Federal Credit Union, with delivery confirmation tags on each one. For the life of me, I was in complete and utter disbelief when I opened one of the packages and found that all thirteen had the same documentation in them and were sent on the same day - and we wonder why we are depleting our natural resources. When I got on the phone to obtain what the problem could be, I was sent through several representatives until I was finally connected with James, who worked in the 90 day office - meaning he had reason to believe we were 90 days late in payment. "NO FUDGEN WAY!” but I didn't say Fudge…I said the F --- word. I screamed in the phone as I sat there in my makeshift home office staring at all the checks that had cleared my account for all my payments. If this was a joke, I wasn't finding it the least bit funny. Now you remember when I explained that our account was set up on an auto draft plan. We'll I was able to stop the auto drafting many months earlier and would go into the bank and make my payment, and without question the teller would take my money. All seemed well and good with one exception - nine cents. What happens is that when you make a payment, if the payment isn’t 100% of the amount that was written in loan, the money will go to a suspense account. For example, if you write a check for $101.00 and the payment is $100.00 then the dollar will go into a suspense until it adds up to the next payment amount. Now if your payment is $100.09, and you write it for $100.00, then your $100.00 payment goes into a suspense account and you get a late fee added to the payment. If you’re not aware that this was the problem, things get out of hand with quickness and well, honestly, this is how our nightmare began - nine cents short and that generated payments being put into suspense and hundreds of dollars in fees (No lie), and what was the big shocker of this entire situation is that this had been going on since July of 2012.

How would someone know, things were bad, if you got a receipt, after every payment, in the mail that read as follows, “We have received your payment of $XYZ, check number 000, and it has been posted to your account. We thank you for doing business with us, followed by the usual, if you have any questions please call, and so on and so forth. Never once did we get anything indicating a payment issue until the big bundle of document packages. We also never got any phone calls referencing this problem until a week before the packages were sent to us. By the time they had finally gotten a hold of us in November they clamined we 90 days deliquent and were due for a total of $5,927.00. Their records showed non-payment for two payments in Sept, two payments in October and a half payment in November. Immediately my brain was become scortched. I am not math wizzard but if you added up each of my bi-weekly payment amount, the five they claimed they didn't have totaled 4,455.00 and what was worse this time frame also didn't total 90 days - where were they getting 90 days from and the $1,470 difference? It was then I learned another sneaky bank trick about the madatory bi- weekly auto drafter low rate loans, that I still think is bullshit.  Because the auto drafter was inactive all the funds that I made for my payments were immdiately going into a suspense account and the COMPUTER was saying I was late that all started because I forgot the 9 cents on a check. Then because the COMPUTER said we had a November half payment due, and it wasn’t anywhere near the end of November, but to them it didn’t matter, it didn’t go by days, it went by monthly names. That my friends is how my credit got it’s throat cut, when our bank reported we were 90 days past due – but our money had been sitting in a suspense account to make several of these payments. Trust me, I didn’t just sit back and take it.  We got the account corrected and one, of the several fees reversed, but as for anything sent to the credit bureau, they wouldn't fix and stated they needed to complete the investigation which is still on going. I am frustrated as I review all the information about this situation and who benefited here - certainly not us. The bank not only got payments and fees from us; they also go all the interest this large sum of money generated in the suspense account - Sad hua?  The next big hit we took, was went we learned that our loan was also set up as a conventional – NOT VA – WHAT THE HELL! CAN’T ANYONE DO THEIR DANG JOB ANYMORE!

Ok, needed to get that last line out. I will say that what happened last year, really didn’t register with me, until once again I get a letter saying the same shit as it did in November. So I made a phone call to the person indicated in the letter, but he was not in, and so I spoke with a lady who took the time to share with me what she believed was the problem – this time it was not our error. PHEW! But I will say this time a scary reality sank in. I realized that we need to learn to save better and it’s time we pay our debts off in full – and that is exactly what we are about to do. I will say, it’s not going to be easy, but we are going to take it one day at a time and have already began to find ways to cut back and I am going to try my luck working again, but part-time. Wish me luck. *wink*

 

I want to thank Malida, from Norway and Ellis from Washington State, who gave me the courage to share my struggles, after I read their questions and their stories about the worldly economy and their personal struggles, and had asked how my family and I make ends meet, as prices continue to escalade and jobs are fewer and far between. As for the rest of the emails, I promise that I will do my best to write on your serious topics, and yes I’ll also do my best for the others to keep writing more short stories. 

To Malida and Ellis – Yes, we are trying to survive our own set of financial setbacks, and have said many prayers that often go unheard. Weather is another factor that hurts our budget and now we have some medical things rearing their ugly head. I have learned that communication with my husband and our creditors to find an end to the madness is just what the doctor ordered. What I also found to be extremely helpful was when I took the time to speak with a knowledgeable financial advisor in SunTrust Bank, and she has mapped us out a road to a full recovery and future financial freedom. Just hang in there you two, and everyone else who has been effect by our ever changing financial world, you are not alone. Always know you can write to me freely and if I learn of any new ways to making ends meet, I will send the information your way.




 

To all of my loyal readers, let me say a few last words before I sign off. I'd like to  leave everyone with some very valuable words in reguards to troubles in life and especially Bad Credit - it is just like weight loss, it can’t be fixed overnight, but with patience, understanding, and a good plan, it will get better.

 

 

I thank you for your time, and I wish you all a pot of gold at the end of your rainbows. Until next time – Blog ya later.