OT - Argh - Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!!!

"Jo Firey" wrote:
And I never have that kind of money in my checking account. Would chew a
client up one side and down the other for leaving that kind of money in a
checking account.

I was working on settling out my mothers estate and a few other things that
landed enough there for a few days to make a mistake like that possible.
That's also why I was upset and careless. The only reason it took as long
as it did to get my money back was they had to have a company officer sign
the check to send back to me.

OMG, what unlucky timing!

I've seen pros make mistakes with decimal points too. Once, I came
home from a trip to Korea still holding about enough Korean cash for a
dinner and a cab ride. $1 USD is about 1000 Korean won. I exchanged
what I had for dollars in Boston, expecting maybe $30 or so back. My
attention was wandering at first, but it seemed to be taking pretty
long. My eyes popped out as I noticed the changer counting out stacks
of hundreds and thousands of dollars! I told her to recheck the
exchange rate she was using! I think she actually had it backwards!

About 20+ years ago after DH and I were first married, I was paying bills
and not paying very good attention to what I was doing as I managed to make
a credit card payment check out with the exact balance of our checking
account; needless to say that it was an unwelcome surprise when our checks
bounced all over the place.
Christine
"Magic Mood Jeep©" wrote in message
...
Ok, This is a weird thing I did, but really STUPID!

I am in charge of all our bill-paying: mortgage, car loan, utilities,
credit
cards, etc., etc....

Our bank of choice is Chase (actually, JP Morgan/Chase - our bank, Bank
One,
was acquired by them, and they seem to be OK), and we do the online
bill-pay
thing (saves us bookoo in stamps, plus, a *lot* of it is electronic
transfer, which only takes a day or two, so the money gets to the
creditors
quicker than by mailing a check).

Our phone (landline) is AT&T, used to be SBC (which, about 10 years ago,
was
AT&T, and why they've changed back & forth is one of those mystery things
that could only be explained by a corporate attorney, and us lay-people
*still* wouldn't understand it), and one of our credit cards is managed by
Citi Corp, but is 'sponsored' by AT&T, and the 'pay to' name is "AT&T
Universal Card".

When paying the bills online, they are listed alphabetically.

DH is a salaried employee, and they are paid monthly - on the *last
Wednesday* of the month (another one of those mysteries....)

Friday, I get a call from Citi, and they were like , "umm, we didn't get a
payment from you....", and I was "I *KNOW* I sent it"... I look in Quicken
(we don't even use a paper register anymore, the only checks we actually
write ourselves are for the auto insurance), and there it is, plain as
day..... While I have the Citi guy on the phone, I check the online
banking.... whoops! It says "AT&T" instead of "AT&T Universal Card".....
Seems that last month, while paying the bills, I sent the "AT&T Universal
Card" payment ($400) to "AT&T" the phone company, by simply clicking the
*wrong* box! This Citi guy is very nice and understanding (nothing like
the
AmEx guy that someone wrote about here recently), but wants me to make a
payment over the phone. Not gonna happen. He wants to give me a phone #
to
call back on - I don't even want it (how am I to know I'm not calling some
guy in a garage up the road?). I explain that I *will* make a payment,
but
over *not* over the phone, it will be via my bank's online services. It
will *not* be the $400 that we sent to the wrong company, at least not
until
we get it *back* from the wrong company (which they say will take *three
weeks*!!!). I did go online after discussing it with DH and sent a
payment
of the minimum due, and that leaves us with a bunch of money less than we
thought we were gonna have to play with this month!

So now we will probably have a "mark" on our credit report because the
payment that I sent on Friday was about a week-and-a-half late, and all
our
interest rates will more than likely go up....

But, I have found out that I can assign nicknames to the online bill
payment
names, without having to change the "pay to" names - so "AT&T" the phone
company is now labeled "PHONE" so I *will not* do this again!!!

--�
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy
former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)©
email me at nalee1964 (at) insightbb (dot) com
http://community.webshots.com/user/mgcmdjeep

"Magic Mood Jeep©" wrote in message
...
Ok, This is a weird thing I did, but really STUPID!

I am in charge of all our bill-paying: mortgage, car loan, utilities,
credit
cards, etc., etc....

Our bank of choice is Chase (actually, JP Morgan/Chase - our bank, Bank
One,
was acquired by them, and they seem to be OK), and we do the online
bill-pay
thing (saves us bookoo in stamps, plus, a *lot* of it is electronic
transfer, which only takes a day or two, so the money gets to the
creditors
quicker than by mailing a check).

Our phone (landline) is AT&T, used to be SBC (which, about 10 years ago,
was
AT&T, and why they've changed back & forth is one of those mystery things
that could only be explained by a corporate attorney, and us lay-people
*still* wouldn't understand it), and one of our credit cards is managed by
Citi Corp, but is 'sponsored' by AT&T, and the 'pay to' name is "AT&T
Universal Card".

When paying the bills online, they are listed alphabetically.

DH is a salaried employee, and they are paid monthly - on the *last
Wednesday* of the month (another one of those mysteries....)

Friday, I get a call from Citi, and they were like , "umm, we didn't get a
payment from you....", and I was "I *KNOW* I sent it"... I look in Quicken
(we don't even use a paper register anymore, the only checks we actually
write ourselves are for the auto insurance), and there it is, plain as
day..... While I have the Citi guy on the phone, I check the online
banking.... whoops! It says "AT&T" instead of "AT&T Universal Card".....
Seems that last month, while paying the bills, I sent the "AT&T Universal
Card" payment ($400) to "AT&T" the phone company, by simply clicking the
*wrong* box! This Citi guy is very nice and understanding (nothing like
the
AmEx guy that someone wrote about here recently), but wants me to make a
payment over the phone. Not gonna happen. He wants to give me a phone #
to
call back on - I don't even want it (how am I to know I'm not calling some
guy in a garage up the road?). I explain that I *will* make a payment,
but
over *not* over the phone, it will be via my bank's online services. It
will *not* be the $400 that we sent to the wrong company, at least not
until
we get it *back* from the wrong company (which they say will take *three
weeks*!!!). I did go online after discussing it with DH and sent a
payment
of the minimum due, and that leaves us with a bunch of money less than we
thought we were gonna have to play with this month!

So now we will probably have a "mark" on our credit report because the
payment that I sent on Friday was about a week-and-a-half late, and all
our
interest rates will more than likely go up....

But, I have found out that I can assign nicknames to the online bill
payment
names, without having to change the "pay to" names - so "AT&T" the phone
company is now labeled "PHONE" so I *will not* do this again!!!

I'm stunned that interest rates are based on whether you pay your bills on
time.

We don't have any such thing here, much to my relief. You can default on all
the bills you like, but your credit record only relates to actual credit
extended to you via a lending insitution, not what you owe in back taxes or
the phone company, and even if you have a *terrible* credit rating, your
interest rates - if you manage to get another loan - are no different to
anyone else's. The only effect a terrible credit rating will hae is how easy
it will be for you to borrow more money.

Yowie

On 2006-07-18, Yowie penned:

I'm stunned that interest rates are based on whether you pay your
bills on time.

We don't have any such thing here, much to my relief. You can
default on all the bills you like, but your credit record only
relates to actual credit extended to you via a lending insitution,
not what you owe in back taxes or the phone company, and even if you
have a *terrible* credit rating, your interest rates - if you manage
to get another loan - are no different to anyone else's. The only
effect a terrible credit rating will hae is how easy it will be for
you to borrow more money.

Here's another point of view: If you really need a loan in the US, you
can get it. I suspect that people with awful credit would never get
any under your system.

I don't see why defaulting on bills shouldn't harm your credit rate,
though. Defaulting = bad credit risk. It's like car insurance
costing more after you've been in a few wrecks. Banking is not
charity. If they didn't give people with bad credit high rates, I'm
sure the lowest rates available would be higher than they are.

Another point of view is that low rates don't really matter to people
with good credit, because they're unlikely to keep a balance from
month to month. The low rate might make them feel better about doing
so, though, and so a bank might get more money out of a person with a
high credit score by giving them low rates (might consider floating a
balance) than a high rate (forget about it, not going to let that
happen).

Most credit cards, in the fine print (in the US anyway) reserve the
right to raise your interest rates if you miss a payment. A lot of
them even specify fines. I can honestly say that I don't think I've
ever made a late credit card payment (minimums are usually pretty
small), but I've had friends who did, and if they were good customers
they always got whatever negative effect was the rule to be waived in
their case.

I've had one credit card decide to discontinue me as a client because
they decided I had too much revolving credit available. Well, I have
to say they had impeccable timing, as I received their letter the very
same day I finalized the paperwork on a loan to consolidate my debt.
I guess they were right.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Yowie wrote:

We don't have any such thing here, much to my relief. You can default on all
the bills you like, but your credit record only relates to actual credit
extended to you via a lending insitution, not what you owe in back taxes or
the phone company, and even if you have a *terrible* credit rating, your
interest rates - if you manage to get another loan - are no different to
anyone else's. The only effect a terrible credit rating will hae is how easy
it will be for you to borrow more money.

Yowie

What *really* stinks; what is REALLY unfair is, now our automobile
insurance rates can be determined by our credit scores. I don't get
this! Being in debt has no bearing whatsoever on whether you're a safe
driver, or a bad risk for auto insurance. And bad things can happen to
good people sometimes. Suppose your credit was damaged from a layoff,
an injury, an illness or other inability to work. It is NOT fair to be
penalized by having your auto insurance rates go up.

Sherry

wrote:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

Ah well. Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes
from bad judgement. I learned a lot in those first few years out
on my own. The Kirby is only one of a series of foolish decisions.

OK, but can you top this one? I lent $1300 to a friend (not a close
friend, btw) who was on the verge of losing her apartment if she
didn't pay the rent - *AFTER* she told me she had a compulsive
debting problem. How stupid is that??? I was even out of work at the
time, although I still had a lot of money in my savings account.

The chronology went like this: first she asked to borrow the money. I
said yes. Then she said she had the debting problem. But by then I
felt I'd made a promise and didn't want to break it, especially if it
would cause her to be evicted. I didn't realize at the time that this
is how she manipulates people - by creating drama and crisis in her
life and then getting people to rescue her.

At the time, a mutual friend of ours said "DON'T DO IT!!" But I
couldn't bring myself to go back on my promise to help. I should have
listened to that good advice! This woman still owes me $900 from
that, and I've been pretty broke over the past 3 years. Needless to
say, I do not consider her any kind of friend anymore. Just because I
was stupid enough to trust her, does not excuse her being a sleazoid.
Joyce

Sounds like perfect fodder for one of those Judge shows on television. One
thing they've taught me: if you absolutely feel *compelled* to loan someone
money, lay out the terms of repayment in a Promissory Note and both parties
sign it. Also, do not loan cash; use a personal check or cashiers check.
On the memo line write "LOAN to name from name" so it's absolutely
clear. Make sure the bank will give you a copy of the cashed check. (Note:
many banks now actually *charge* you to get a copy of your own check, but if
it comes down to the difference between $1300 or a small copying fee, I'll
take the copying fee any time.)

Jill

Victor Martinez wrote:
Magic Mood Jeep© wrote:
So now we will probably have a "mark" on our credit report because
the payment that I sent on Friday was about a week-and-a-half late,
and all our interest rates will more than likely go up....

Call them again and ask to speak to a supervisor. If you have had a
good history of on-time payments with them, they will not ding you
for this.
It's happened to me before, they've even waived the late payment fee.

Yep, happened to me today, in fact. I have two credit cards with the same
bank (one Visa, one MC). I don't use them, but they have balances on them
and I work diligently to pay the balance down. I get email notifications of
when the payments are due and I go online to pay them. Apparently I paid
the Visa twice last billing cycle instead of making a payment to each card
as I'd intended. Got a call today; the MC had been sent to their
collections department because it was 30 days past due. I keep a record of
all my "email payment receipts" and sure enough, I'd done exactly that.
After talking with someone higher up, they waived the late fee and didn't
charge me to do a check over the phone.

Jill

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:19:29 GMT Jo Firey wrote:

Two years ago while paying my bill online for use of tax software, a bill in
excess of $500.00, I managed to leave out the decimal point.


My online-account is limited to a daily transfer rate of max.
EUR 3.000,00 (about 3.750,00 USD at the moment), regardless how much
more money would be on that account (not that there IS more - wish, it
would be). So the online system would reject the attempt of such a
transfer straight away.

OTOH, when transferring a sum higher than the daily allowance (had to
do that when I bought a car), I have to visit a bank office in person
and hand the clerk a written and signed bank transfer form, so that
they can check on the spot whether my account is credit-worthy and
approve the transfer. But handing them a written bank transfer form
costs an extra fee, while online-banking is "free".

Squarely Yours
Michael

--
Square Dance is friendship put to music
Andrea and Michael with furballs Blacky and Merlin
More detailed info: http://www.curschmann-sachsen.de

Micha wrote:
On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:19:29 GMT Jo Firey wrote:

Two years ago while paying my bill online for use of tax software, a
bill in excess of $500.00, I managed to leave out the decimal point.


My online-account is limited to a daily transfer rate of max.
EUR 3.000,00 (about 3.750,00 USD at the moment), regardless how much
more money would be on that account (not that there IS more - wish, it
would be). So the online system would reject the attempt of such a
transfer straight away.

OTOH, when transferring a sum higher than the daily allowance (had to
do that when I bought a car), I have to visit a bank office in person
and hand the clerk a written and signed bank transfer form, so that
they can check on the spot whether my account is credit-worthy and
approve the transfer. But handing them a written bank transfer form
costs an extra fee, while online-banking is "free".

Squarely Yours
Michael

Most of the time I could live with that amount, but once or twice in the
past I've paid a credit card bill online for more than that. I'm sure there
are many people that would find that restrictive.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy and Bagheera)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart.
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
I don't see why defaulting on bills shouldn't harm your credit rate,
though. Defaulting = bad credit risk. It's like car insurance

Not when it was due to an honest mistake.

costing more after you've been in a few wrecks. Banking is not
charity. If they didn't give people with bad credit high rates, I'm
sure the lowest rates available would be higher than they are.

They are indeed not charities, but they have obscene profit margins.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
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