I am an angry person
 

....

A company can only rack up tons of debt to your name if you're being extremely negligent. So...don't be negligent! You're on the right track with making a budget and accounting for all income and expenditures, and I am amazed at the number of people I know who don't do this.

...couple of sage old saying$:

• "...Best way to SAVE money is to NOT spend it..."

• "...Never a BORROWER or a LENDER be..."

WRONG! I have credit card shysters claiming I owe thousands to them for A ZERO DOLLAR DEBT. :mad: It is 100% fees they arbitrarily applied to the account. When that happens, there is nobody in the company with a functioning brain to be found. Tell me how it's my negligence that causes all that "debt" on a zero balance.

It's cute isht just like they're doing to the guy that "owes" hundreds for his couple of boxes of Girl Scout cookies: Colorado man to go to trial in May over $42 Girl Scout cookie purchase | abc11.com

Along the lines of Frank Lee's story. I know someone who had and electronic payment taken from their bank account which overdrew the account. The payment was made to a company they had no business relationship with. The account was an seldom used account that somehow the address had gotten changed so they were received no notices. The address change was small from street to court or something similar.

How this person found out about it was a collection notice. The notice of course was for a exaggerated amount of money. Talking to the collection agency was a bust. They only wanted money. Talking to the company that requested the electronic withdrawal yielded nothing. They wouldn't help as that person had no account with them. The bank that they had their account with wouldn't help because they no longer had an account with them. The bank had closed the account.

The person finally contacted a Federal banking agency. The agency requested information from the bank. The next thing you know the bank that couldn't help was calling vowing to get to the bottom of it.
In the end they called off the collection agency, removed the withdrawal and over draft charges and sent a check for the account balance. They never gave an explanation.

The larger the company, the less they care.

This is why we need to block all monopolies, something our government has allowed to happen too much lately. XM/Sirius. and the new boondoggle, Time warner - Comcast, will create a Hydra Mega corporation that will ruin the US internet for millions.

But without campaign finance reform I doubt much will change.

Sorry for the rant, but this is a major sore point in our future.

It pays to read the fine print.
 

I mucked up my last credit card repayment.
I normally repay the whole amount and pay no interest, this time I misread the amount and repaid $37 short of the full amount.
I was charged $153 interest :mad:.

I spoke to a nice lady at the bank (which bank?) who showed me the fine print.
It seems that interest becomes payable on the whole amount, plus anything accrued since that date.

After politely making it plain that I wasn't happy (understatement) and leaving the bank before I said anything I'd regret, I got a phone call from the nice lady who informed me that the interest would be reimbursed.

Needless to say, I'll be making doubly sure that that dammed card is fully paid off in future.
I got lucky once with the bank, I don't expect it'll happen a second time.

I worked for a bank and never understood how when you screw up its the banks fault. :confused:

Customer: I had 200 dollars, I spent 300, why am I over drawn 100 dollars?
Me: you spent more money than you had.
Customer: Sir, how did I over draft?
Me: Ok, get out your cell phone and turn to the calculator app.
Customer: ok
Me: Type in 200, then minus 300.
Customer: Yeah, but how did that happen?
Me: Is there anything important I can help you with? :D

Last time I got a call from a collection agency, I took a minute and found the cancelled check they said I never wrote or mailed, with their account number on the back when they desposited the check.

I rattled off the acount number and informed them my witness fee was 10 times the amount of the check, per day. I invited them to be stupid enough to summon me to appear in court with the check in hand.

Silence, then "We are sorry, there seems to be some kind of mistake."

"Not by me".

regards
Mech

Good one. :thumbup: I had to do that to the city of RIchmond, VA. Ironically after getting a copy in hand they took my word for it. :confused:

I had a failed subscription to 4wheeldrive like that too. I didnt get my magazine, so I canceled my check as it never cleared. Then they sent 2 issues, then several nasty letters from a bill collector. I hadnt given them my ssn so it couldnt effect my credit, but it was rather upsetting to get those when they seem to of lost my check to begin with. I ended up doing a BBB compliant to get it resolved and they ended up giving me a year subscription.

Interest on $37 was 65 cents.
Interest on the whole amount payable was $77.65, which I was prepared to pay.

To be charged $153 is the act of a blood sucking leach ... or a greedy bank ... it's often hard to tell the difference between the two. :rolleyes:

I emend my original statement to, "Don't be negligent, and always read the fine print." Those two go together; don't neglect periodically checking that your address is up to date and correct and then blame the bank for not contacting you at your address; don't pay a credit card balance in part and then be surprised when you are charged interest on the remaining balance and applicable fees which you agreed to in the fine print when you applied for credit (my dad did exactly this a few years ago and canceled the card afterward; I didn't have the heart to tell him that his new bank, like every bank, had the same policy). If you aren't ready to swim with sharks, don't jump in the water.

Cancelling a credit card that you've had for a few years, especially if it's your oldest card is bad for your credit score. They average how long you've had how many cards you have, the older the better. Learned that the hard way.

I read that! When I graduated from college in 2,007, I did not have any idea where I would work, and it was seventeen months before I found anything stable, by joining the Army. I struggled to pay my credit cards that entire time, and largely lost. I was excited when I started work as a substitute teacher, not having any idea that I would prefer going to war, but I opened a checking account with a credit union that was actually supposed to pay me interest! Then I was supposed to get a great deal with a credit card and I had balance transfers set up and everything! My life was turning around!

Except, I never received the credit card, so I could not activate it, therefore, the balances were never transferred. However, through some form of dark magic, my brand-new credit card showed the transfer anyway. Yay! My credit card debt doubled overnight! I was able to point out that it did not go through and drop the $6,000 balance, but they insisted that I needed to pay the interest on a credit card that I never had. I did not realize that the transfer did not go through until after their respective payments were due, so I was hit with late payment fines, which caused over-limit fees.

I loved that. "Oh, you can't pay your bill? I understand. Late fee! Over-limit fee! But wait! There's more! As a bonus, we are also raising your interest rate!" I remember calling and trying to get them to work with me. They just insisted that I needed to pay the bill. When I decided to end the call, I was told that they were putting in my record that I refused to pay my bill. I since heard that if you cannot pay the full amount, just make sure to pay something. Then they cannot fine you for missing a payment. Is there any truth to that?

When they joined the Army, they were offering bonuses, so I chose the job with the largest bonus. I could have had another eighteen thousand, but I would have needed to commit to another two years--I still would have been out there somewhere. When my first bonus installment came I paid off my credit cards. I did not get another one for a year or two because I could not rent a car when I was home on leave. It is basically a pre-paid. I gave them $500 and they gave me a card. I think that it is weird they charge me interest for using my own money, but I just make sure to use my checking account instead. I could totally raise my interest rate anytime and along with average age of your accounts, your debt-to-limit ratio also counts. However, I feel that I need to see if I can convert the account to a real credit card. Even if they do not give me a higher limit, at least I would have my money back!

Ecomodder is my second home; Slickdeals is my first. Fatwallet is also a good resource for saving money and learning how to invest.

Good advice for most but...

I don't budget, and I don't make tons of money. When you spend as little as possible, budgets aren't necessary. Somehow I developed a personality that dislikes spending money, and especially finding out I could have paid less for something.

Disciplining yourself to take pleasure in delayed gratification pays dividends.

In most cases, that would result in an increase in the price of goods and services. As slimy as big business is, they do deliver what the customer wants at lower prices.

Guess they don't know how to use the phone. But I do agree the account was being neglected by the owner.

This is why I don't go outside anymore.

There is too much potential for massive savings by buying on eBay instead of at retail stores.

The only problem is now I'm kinda-sorta impulse buying on eBay, but at least I do some kind of thinking and research before I pull the trigger, instead of taking home some incompatible or incorrect part and then having to do multiple trips back to the store to find out that they haven't got the right part anyway, I've replaced it with waiting 2-3 weeks for the part to arrive on the long boat from china, then getting bored with the original intention of the project and the use for the part.

But at least I'm saving tons of money!

Two sides of the monetary coin:

+ Frugality is good ('consumer' motto).

- Greed is good ('Wall Street' motto)

I enjoy the community here. I have seen some great bargains on Slickdeals, but that just resulted in me spending money that I did not need to, like $4 on an electric yard blower!

I am not sure how helpful I ever am here, but this site is more useful to me, even though I never actually ecomod! :)

Working at the bank I did was a fustercluck. You are never in the right and you can always do better. The person you spoke too should of clarified if you wanted a pay off and given a payoff quote vs the current balance or last statement balance.

Now if this was your first fee and wanted a curiosity refund Id given it to you. Over the 5 years I was on the phone the fee refund policy changed weekly. One time it was at our will, then you had to ask as we couldnt volunteer to refund, then we had to check your refund history to see if a previous was issued, then we had to do retension and refund the fee only if you kept the account open. :confused:

They tell us to think of the 3 legged stool, the customer, the stock holder and the co worker. Are you being fair to all 3 in your decision? We had share holders call up and test us in regards to security questions and for fee refunds/free checks when it wasnt warrened. I had a customer clal about an atm fee and I denied a refund.He in turn thanked me as he said he was a share holder and wanted to make sure we werent gving away the bank. :eek:

I accidentally mailed a check for, a loan payment to First American Bank, to the State of Virginia. Stuck the check in the wrong envelope.
Danged if they didn't cash it.

regards
Mech

I've had the same experience, but involving the wrong check in wrong envelope to both a supplier and a utility company. Both checks were cashed. The utility was overpaid and the supplier was underpaid. Fortunately I was able to rectify the situation after I discovered the error.

What you may not realize is that nowadays checks are all processed by automated systems. No human reviews whether a check is made out to the correct business or not.

When I worked for a bank we used automation for atm deposits, mailed checks, but anything taken to the branch was eyeballed. It caused a lot of problems as customers knew of the electronic processing and would see a teller to do something that slipped under the radar with no problems. This was usually 3rd party checks like a husbands pay check on an account that just listed the wife. Post dated checks to cash or deposit and checks that were not signed the same as the signature card.