The devil is in the details

Last week's woes

Last week was a rough week here in Iggy-ville. I thought about writing about what was up a few times, but mostly I was too upset and stressed out to be coherent or to be able to write about it without getting upset. Fortunately I calmed down a little later in the week and then got distracted from worrying while my mom and sister were here.

At the end of the week of July 4th, I received a large sum of money by check. It's sort of a long story as to how I got this money, but suffice it to say that it was BIG. I earmarked the money to pay off my credit card bills (which were scary and stressfully large themselves) and to go on vacation. I deposited the check at the end of that week.

According to my online bank statement, the money made it to my account on July 11th. On the 13th-14th, I paid off my credit card bills and I bought a vacation package the following weekend. I put all of the leftover money (earmarked to be spending money on the vacation) in my savings account. I was really, really happy. I was of course excited about my vacation, but I was also excited to sort of have my financial house in order. I've never been particularly good with money and my stipend isn't very large. I had some months in the past where I didn't manage the stipend very well and ended up running out of $ before my next check came on the 1st of the month. I've been a lot tighter with money later and have not been running out of money and have been a lot more pulled together money wise. I felt like the final part of paying off the credit card bills and putting a chunk into the savings account was the start of my really having my act together.

I was a little bored at lab on this past Monday (7/24) and logged into my online bank account. It had a large, red, negative balance as it was very much overdrawn. It turns out that the large check was being removed from my account. I left the lab immediately and called the company and the bank and tried to start figuring out what was going on. I didn't get very many great answers, but I was told it would solved between the end of the business day on Wednesday and the end of the business day on Friday. The financial institution that gave me the check also said they would reimburse all of the overdraft fees that I would incur based on the problem. I was slightly calmer that it would be eventually solved, but I was quite upset because now I had no money in my bank account. I had enough cash on Monday to go to the drugstore and buy deodorant and soap and mouthwash and some of the other toiletries that I had run out of (particularly important in all this heat), which took all of the cash I had. I went through Monday-Thursday morning with no cash. I could have asked friends for some cash, I could have put some groceries on my now "emergency" credit card, or I could have tried to get some cash from the emergency card as well, but I just couldn't bring myself to. After all, the cards had been paid off for less than a week and I wanted them to stay at a zero balance for at least a statement (even though I supposed that this WAS the emergency that emergency cards are meant for) and I'm not good at asking for help or depending on other people for help. I just kept telling myself that "tomorrow it will all be over and I can make it one more day." I mean, a large dinner really just seemed overrated. I was calling customer service at the bank and the other company daily and I was calling other companies (like the cable company) as their checks were returned to tell them that it wasn't my fault and to see what type of documentation they would need to not charge me fees. The whole thing was so defeating: I had been so happy to have gotten everything worked out the week before and now I felt like I must be doomed to having financial problems that would never clear up.

I planned on going into the lab for just a couple hours on Thursday before my mom and sister came to town. Right after I got to the lab I happened to check the bank account and noticed that the check had been subtracted TWICE and now my account was in overdrawn with an UNBELIEVABLY large amount. I started simultaneously crying and cussing out the bank and I stormed out of the lab to go and call the company again. On my way out the door, I realized that perhaps a stop at the bank branch might be useful. I arrived there at 11-11:30 and stayed until 12:45 where both an account manager (my new friend Virginia) and the bank's manager worked to try to make things better. It was really the first time that any customer service people were very helpful throughout the ordeal. They found out that the double subtraction was the bank's fault and took care of it. They found out that the check was being returned and that they would have a reason by Friday morning and offered to find out at 8 am Friday morning and call me about it by 8:30. They gave me the necessary forms to get the other company to reimburse my overdraft fees (currently $199). They told me that if I had any trouble getting the company to reimburse me, that they would personally cancel the overdraft fees. They wrote letters to the companies that I had bounced checks to telling them that the overdraft was not my fault so that they would not charge me returned check fees. They assured me that this would not impact my credit rating. In the end, everything was solved that could have been solved at that point and I felt somewhat better. The only thing left to do, we agreed, was to call the company to see if there was any more information they could give me as to why the check was being returned.

I went home and called the company and finally started to get some answers. I kept telling the customer service representative that she needed to explain things more slowly so that I could write them down to tell the people at the bank. She told me that she could talk to my bank representative herself if I called her from the bank, authorized her to talk to the bank and then sat there while they talked to confirm it was okay. I immediately hung up the phone, called Virginia to see if that was okay and walked back to the bank. During the walk to the bank, my head was finally clear enough for the first time that week to realize that I could go to the ATM and get cash from the savings account (remember all the money I put there?) and then pay myself back later. I felt pretty dumb for not realizing that sooner. We got the call initiated and found out that the whole problem was that the check had been miscoded. The money is on its way back to my account and should be there by the end of the business day on this coming Tuesday. It isn't there yet...

It has been pretty stressful, but things are better especially now that I have some cash and went to the grocery store. I felt a little bad for monopolizing Virgnina's whole day (or at least ~11-2:30 particularly since lunchtime was included there and I don't know if she had time to eat) but am extremely grateful that she was so helpful. I am trying to think of something nice I could do. Anyway, I've learned a lot of lessons, most notably that a large cushion in my savings account=good and that I should not try to deal with these problems on my own with customer service but should let real professional people handle them in person. Hopefully, this will all be cleared up soon and I can start being excited about travelling again... :)

posted by Immunegirl @ 3:37 PM