Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I just paid off another account

It doesn't feel as good as the other payoffs have felt.

The Backstory:
Bank of America issued me a card with a $10,000 credit line. Me, being the dumb ass that I can be sometimes, I spent it all. Twice. Things were fine until I got married. The post office wouldn't forward the credit card statements to me, they sent them back to the credit card companies. Before I realized it, I was so far behind in monthly payments there was no catching up.

So the BOA account got turned over to collections. For too many years they have been taking a monthly payment out of my checking account. Yes, I gave them my banking information. I didn't know any better. They were threatening lawsuits and court ordered payments and I freaked out. Not one of my better judgement calls.

Fast Forward to Today:
The collection agency called me at lunch right before I was leaving to come back to work. The girl that was managing my account offered me a settlement of $1480 which was 40% of what I still owed.

I jumped at the chance to get this account gone. I didn't take any time to talk myself out of it. I didn't even take the time to check the checking account balance. I just said "Yes, that's what I want to do. Can you take the money out of my account today?"

After the phone call was over I transfered the money from savings into the checking account. Then I texted Hubbs and told him. I was a little worried that he would be pissed for not discussing it with him first or something but he was okay with it.

Now, an hour later I am feeling buyers remorse. Seriously, I want to throw up. But we happened to have the money sitting in savings for this type of thing, paying off credit cards. It will be an extra $130 a month that I can throw at another account or put in savings. That should make me feel better, but it really doesn't.

With the current state of the economy and all these banks failing and needing to be bailed out, I would really feel better with the money in savings instead of someone else's pocket. I know the money will be replaced soon enough and we still have a good amount in the savings account (should anything happen) to get by on if we had to.

Gah! If I would have known 6 years ago, what I know now.............I guess you (I) just have to live an learn.

I hope someone out there learns something from my mistakes. If just 1 person is helped by something I have blogged about, it all would be worth it. KWIM?

2 comments:

-Bridget said...

You did the right thing paying it off. It will get better! You are on top of things now!

Samantha said...

Thanks! I do feel better about it now. 1 more down, 3 (I think) to go!