Posted on: October 31, 2008 by Matt
My weekly roundup of articles that I have enjoyed has not been published in a week or two due to travelling and such. Anyway, I have still been out reading and have a few articles that I enjoyed in the past week:
In other news - my first paycheck since changing banks has been deposited to my new bank account. No issues so I think I am all set to cut over my primary checking to my local bank. Have a safe and happy Halloween!
Posted on: October 30, 2008 by Matt
I recently went to the hospital to have my ear checked out. At the time I was not too concerned and knew that I had to get the problem taken care of. While I was fully aware that my insurance was not very good and expected to pay out of pocket for the visit I had no idea what it would cost.
Well, the bill came in yesterday and was for about $275. I was in the clinic for roughly an hour of which time I think I spent maybe 10 minutes with a health care provider. Most of my time was spent waiting. The services provided included diagnosing the eczema in my ear and flushing wax deposits from my ears for good measure.
At first I was a little irritated with the amount on the bill. I cursed my insurance for not covering anything and then blamed the health care industry for having costs that were so high. I had to pause for a minute and remember a few of the positive items about the visit like:
- Since my visit to the clinic the eczema in my ear has cleared up so I suppose the trip was worth while.
- My insurance might not be very good for general office visits but does cover everything above the $2,000 deductible. If something horrible were to happen I would be ok.
- I have an expense check coming in from my recent trip to Denver that will cover most of the bill.
Overall I was probably more upset that I have to adjust my budget to pay for a hospital visit which will impact how quickly I can repay some debt. Not the end of the world and my health is probably more important than creditors.
Of course now that I have been effected by the cost of health care I am a bit more interested in the upcoming election. Both candidates have some new health care plans and while I have made my decision I will probably re-read the health care plans of both candidates. Also - I will probably take a harder look at the HSA offered by my company and look into opening an account to help offset large bills in the future.
Have you had any medical bills that caught you off guard? It seems that all costs related to seeing a doctor always are higher than I would anticipate. I would be interested to hear how other people fare when visiting health care professionals.
Posted on: October 29, 2008 by Matt
A little over a month ago I received a notification from the state attorney general’s office that they had submitted a request to the collection agency holding some of my student loans. I believe that the instructions were for the collection agency to contact me regarding these loans and get it straightened out so that I can receive the documentation I am entitled to Aside from a couple of collection calls that went to voicemail I have heard nothing from the agency.
Therefore - I am sending the card provided by the attorney general’s office back with the option selected for “The business contacted me but my complaint remains unresolved. Briefly Explain.” I hope that providing the feedback to the attorney general’s office will prompt them to try and force some action from the agency. In the space provided for an explanation I wrote in the following: “They called not related to my complaint. I would like them to mail me documents showing my account info monthly - this still has not occurred.”
Hopefully I will be able to get some action out of the collection agency. They are nearly impossible to work with and simply tell me that they can not produce documents on a monthly basis since they are a collection agency. Currently I am thinking as a next step I will look up any information I can find related to their requirements (my original request to the attorney general’s office was for my rights) then harass the collection agency. If working through the attorney general does not produce the results I am hoping for I will begin a campaign of letter writing and incessant phone calls until I find someone competent to speak with (will probably take a while).
Does anyone else out there have any experience in dealing with scummy collection agencies (I have researched this particular agency - they are fairly well known as scummy)? If so how have you dealt with them? I would love to just pay them off but lack the $22,000 to do so. My student loan is private and in collections so I am short on options to either rehabilitate or consolidate the loan. In particular if you have a success story related to dealing with Zwicker & Associates I would love to hear it!
Posted on: October 28, 2008 by Matt
I normally travel a couple of times a year for various reasons but usually between Denver and Vermont. When I lived in Colorado my vacations were generally to come back and see family. Now that I live in Vermont again I have not flown anywhere for the better part of a year and apparently a lot has changed since my last trip.
My last trip by plane was back in February. I flew from Denver to Burlington, VT with the expected connection along the way. When checking in I was able to check a bag (since it had toiletries in it I was not able to bring it as a carry on) and choose my seats or if I wanted to pay extra upgrade my seats. This was not the case on my flights last week; in fact I was shocked to discover some of the changes in the past 8 months.
On Thursday afternoon when I started to check in at the airport the process seemed unchanged until I hit the question: “Are you checking any baggage for this flight?” Even though I was on a short trip I opted to pack a bag to be checked so that I could bring my own toiletries and shaving items. Since a few of my toiletries were not the “travel size” of less than 3.5 ounces I had to check the bag. I pressed yes and then was prompted with the usual screen to select the number of bags I would be checking but something seemed off. Instead of simply selecting the number of bags to check I was now presented with a cost to check the number of bags I have! Each bag to check now costs $15 - a steep increase from allowing two checked bags for free then charging for additional bags.
Before putting my card into the machine to check my bag and pay the $15 I asked one of the attendants about the charges. She politely informed me that yes, you have to pay to check any bags now and that pretty much all airlines are now charging to check baggage. I swiped my card and figured that at least my company would be picking up the tab (I hate having to spend company money almost as much as my own though).
After making my way through security I opted to grab a bite to eat (airport prices for food - another outrageous markup) and review my printed itinerary. I thought that maybe I had missed something regarding checked baggage but noted once again that there was no indication of additional charge. In fact the exact quote from my travel confirmation on baggage was:
“Baggage guidelines—Be sure to review your airline’s baggage allowance guidelines. Airline rules for checked baggage allowances vary. Many carriers allow passengers two checked bags and one carry-on while some only permit two checked bags. All carry-on baggage will be subject to search. Review the Transportation Security Administration’s guidelines for baggage.”
I shook my head and figured that I will just have to tell my boss about the unexpected charge and submit an extra $30 on my expense report for the month. My boss took it pretty well simply calling the airline companies a “bunch of bastards” and telling me to expense the cost. So for anyone else out there traveling in the near future - watch out if you plan on checking bags for your flight. Check your airline’s web page for their policies on baggage so that you do not accidentally get caught by surprise when checking in.
Posted on: October 27, 2008 by Matt
Well I have returned from my trip to Denver for a company event (hence no post on Friday) and am working to get back into the regular swing of things. The trip was pretty quick and mostly filled with travel. I really only spent one full day in Colorado as I left on Thursday night and flew out on Saturday morning. All the travel has left me pretty tired and worn out. I have been feeling behind on everything and am playing catch up in hopes that I can get back to normal operation by early this week; work is getting there and I my blog is my next goal which I can hopefully get under control by tomorrow.
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