26 seconds

Remember the post from last week (the 10^th)? I’m sure you don’t. And instead of making you scroll down to find out, let me just summarize. I sent a check to my student loan company for the remainder of my balance on my account, which should have closed out my account. But instead, they cashed the check, but apparently didn’t put it in their system, leading to more work for me in the form of calling, going to my bank, scanning and faxing papers, etc… Well, everything finally got straightened out! Today, I received two pieces of mail.

The first piece of mail was from the student loan company. I was hesitant to open it because if it was another letter saying that I still owed money, something was getting thrown through a window. But for once, luck was on my side. In the envelope was a short letter, simply explaining to me that my check had gone through, my balance was at zero and that my account was now closed. The letter also said that a report would now be sent to the credit bureau making them aware that my account had been paid. I’m on my way back to good credit!

Now I go to open my second piece of mail. It was a statement from my car insurance company. Tuesday was the day my monthly payment automatically comes out of my bank account. The money was in my account, so I wasn’t worried. This was just a reminder, really. But just to be sure everything was in order, I went online to check my bank statement. I scrolled down…there it was. My monthly payment of $171 had been taken out--wait. What’s that? Again? Why was the amount taken out twice?

Maybe it was just some sort of typo, or technical difficulties. Maybe it was on the statement twice, but it was really only taken out once. So I went through and did the math and…yup, it was taken out twice! Awesome! I had a solid 26 seconds to celebrate paying off my student loan before I was hit with this.

I called the company and they said they could put it down as my next month’s payment. Fine. I guess that’ll work. But what if I didn’t have the money in my account? If I would have overdrafted because they decided to take it out twice, I would have been pissed. Not only would I have overdraft charges, but I’d have to make a million phone calls to set everything straight. Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case. It usually is.