June 5, 2008
Ugh, my neck. I was on the phone with Verizon again. This time, I was having them switch the account to my name so that I could block all incoming collect calls.
After trying to get through their monstrously aggravating voice activated system no less than 5 times trying to make this happen, I was fed up and determined that this was going to be resolved today.
Would you believe after 35 minutes on the phone, and countless previous calls, this CSR sprang the news on me that they were going to charge set-up fees for the name change??
For-ty six dollars.
They didn’t have to do anything except change the name and run the credit check, and they wanted me to pay $46 for the privilege of having access to the bill that I’ve been paying for years. They have my credit card number and bank account numbers on file, I’ve paid that frequently, and they want to charge $46 to give me access to my own danged account! Oooooooh. NO. Not after all the trouble I’ve gone through to reduce costs to stretch my budget. I was furious.
Lest anyone think I’m consumed by a sense of entitlement, that I expected the phone company to care about my budget and expenses, I was primarily angered by the fact that not one of the other CSRs I’d spoken to had ever mentioned any fee to change the name on the account, they’d all assured me it could be done quickly and easily once I had the accountholder’s authorization.
I lost it a little bit. I might as well cancel the service entirely and just start up service with a company of my choosing if I was going to be stiffed with a set-up fee that’s meant to cover their cost for installing new phone service!
He lamely offered to break up the charge into three monthly payments, but I was adamant. I was not going to pay some trumped up charge that had never been discussed in any of the previous conversations I’d had. Period. It honestly makes no sense, they’re keeping me as an on-time paying customer, and they want to spring a charge on me after wasting how much of my time? He put me on hold again and finally came back ten minutes later “Good news!” offering to waive the charges.
I did apologize for being so stern with him, and thanked him for the help.
Then it turned out that there’s a one time fee for initiating a block on collect calls and a monthly fee on top of that. He quickly offered to waive the one time fee, though. Guess I made an impression! *sigh* I’m so not willing to pay even more to avoid possible future charges. I haven’t made up my mind yet, so I guess there’s more phone time to log with Verizon in my future.
April 4, 2008
This isn’t the first time I’ve pondered this and I’m sure it’s getting old. I’m mulling over the various adjustments I’d like to implement for Tax Year 2008. I know what my annual goal was fairly sensible, but in light of some mistakes made in Tax Year 2007, I need to make some post-Q1 adjustments.
Mistake Number 1: Underestimating the amount of “contractor” income I was going to make.
This led to Mistake Number 2: Adjusting my withholdings drastically to make up for what I thought had been excessive withholding, given my Head of Household status. For the last few months of the year, I was paying very little federal tax.
Had I not received so much untaxed income in Q4, too late to correct the withholding and increase my retirement contributions correspondingly, my estimate of my taxable income and corresponding tax bill would have been just about perfect.
Instead, the effects of the two mistakes above were:
1. I ended up owing the entire amount of taxes assessed on the untaxed income, and
2. My percentage of retirement contributions of total income was significantly lower than it should have been.
3. I think I’m being assessed a $32 federal penalty for not making quarterly payments on that income because I withheld too little. 🙁
Rather than making quarterly payments this year, I’m considering the following:
1. Increase my retirement contributions for the rest of the year to include the equivalent of 30% of the untaxed income.
2. Save 10% of the untaxed income for taxes, instead of the usual 30%.
3. Keep my withholding at 1 and add a small, additional amount per month so that I don’t have to waste time, money and brain capacity on sending in quarterly payments.
I like this plan because I really like watching the balances in my Vanguard account go up (despite the market volatility, it creeps up now and again). I really like the idea of committing to a bit more in the retirement accounts. I like reducing that feeling of false security when I’m holding a lot of cash in anticipation of a tax bill.
Cons of the plan: reducing my take-home pay even more will make budgeting even more difficult. I’ll have to be ultra-careful about juggling expenses because I’m no longer holding out until that next fat supplement check, what I gots is what I gots!
Any cons that I’m missing here?
March 9, 2008
Thank you all for your encouragement and support these past couple of days. I know I’ve been on an uncharacteristically lengthy binge of unhappy and depressing news. While one weekend of attempted rejuvenation won’t undo all the emotional and physical distress, I’m going to view this as a sign that I need to make some changes to better cope with the sandstorms of life. This is the beginning of a journey towards a healthier, more-together me.
I took care of a lot of business on Friday and then gave myself permission to relax the rest of the weekend. Then actually went out and did it. Check it out ….
First, the bank charges? Will have to eat them. I called, and Wamu’s new policy is that they’ll only waive one set of fees per year. Thanks to the fiasco I might not have blogged about in January, wherein my mom cashed checks against my account, her employer screwed up and stop paymented those checks when they meant to stop payment other checks they’d mistakenly duplicated, which meant Returned Item fees, I’m out of luck. Sadly, had I consulted the crystal ball, I would have paid that $20 charge and gotten the refund on this much more substantial $60 set. *sigh* No more bank errors allowed!
Second, I made the first of a few e-fund to expense fund transfers last week, but on second and third look, my math does not actually work. The plan was to transfer the total amount of money I’d need that week, and continue on a weekly basis. Except, the bill total and transferred total do not match. I have no idea what I was thinking, but I need to recalculate the amounts in my checking account and the past week’s transaction history to unravel my mistake. Hmmm….. otherwise I’m just going to transfer exact amounts from here on out, and not worry if I’ve accidentally left a cushion in the checking account. Losing interest on a couple hundred dollars is nothing compared to overdraft charges that I didn’t see coming.
Third, we buried my dog. He passed away at home, so I didn’t have to take him to the vet after all. My last dog seems to realize she’s an only child now, and is a little more willing to be in the house with people than she ever was before.
Fourth, I fixed the flat and got an oil change for under $75 dollars. In fact, once I submit the $10 rebate for the oil change, taking the $30 charge to $20, the total will be a whopping $52 for both services, and they qualify as valid charges for Driver’s Edge Options Redemptions. I can finally redeem some of those credits! I only have $80 worth, but it’s still great to have something paid for by rebates.
Fifth, I’ve been making rookie mistakes in choosing the right credit card to pay with lately, and that’s unusual. To help my discombobulated brain, I’m sticking a green star on the card I should be using for all regular purchases. Looks silly, but if it works, I don’t care.
Sixth, the sedan’s out of the shop. Now I just need to get my car’s repairs taken care of, and the truck is no longer necessary to substitute for the regular cars.
Seventh, the bills for the week are paid. Nothing but the rent to worry about this week.
Things Left to Do:
Grocery shopping (tomorrow)
Call Verizon and change the credit card they automatically bill
Call the insurance and make arrangements for my car to be fixed
Decide if I want to go see BoyDucky this or next weekend (I’d use an award ticket)
Continue to wonder why I still haven’t seen a bill for my Early Termination Fee from T-Mobile, but do nothing about it (that includes getting stressed about it)
Call the city and find out why they’re billing me for more than one trash bin when we only use one
January 10, 2008
About a month ago, during a rather rough patch, I accidentally missed the payment date for my Chase card by a day. I was still distraught, so I miscalculated processing times when scheduling the bill payments, and was hit with a late fee a few weeks later.
The weird thing was the amount: $15!
I was going to call and ask for it to be waived so the amount didn’t really register in my mind until after I called. The standard late fee has risen to $39 for most every other card I can think of, I wonder what happened here?
Some days you’re the windshield, I guess?