$1,000 a lesson

Should one single lesson cost $1,000? No. But I am one who only learns from mistakes. Expensive ones.

Like the $1,000 phone bill in college.... I had a boyfriend who lived out of the country and I felt all grown-up, calling the phone company and setting up a 10-cent a minute plan. Go me! I assumed it, you know, was the plan I had since I called and set it up. I certainly didn't talk to my boyfriend for a million minutes (or whatever ten cents a minute at $1,000 becomes....I don't like math). Yep.. So much for assuming things.

I learned my lesson for a little over a decade and now, I'm back at square one, assumptions biting me in the ass. Hard.

So I have student loans since almost 8 years of college isn't free, even with scholarships. They switch from company to company quicker than you can say (whatever you feel like saying) but they have stuck under the umbrella of ACS and AES for a while.

I'm kinda dyslexic and so ACS and AES discombobulate me...E,C, C, E, blah blah. So sometimes I pay ACS twice. You get the idea.

So I got an email from....one of them, let's say AES, and they said I was waaaay behind in my payments. So I groaned and paid a bunch of overdue money. See, we moved and the post office did a huge SNAFU and all our mail was lost for THREE MONTHS. I talked to various supervisors in person and via the phone who all assured me that all was well. Each time. Like, ten times. So my bill supposedly was lost in the mail SNAFU, even though during this melee I made sure AES had my correct information. I've still yet to receive a bill or other correspondence via the mail, but, whatever. They are paid off(well, no, but paid up, no past due debt)/. In one big ugly hairy lump sum.

So ACS calls me but as you know, I'm dumb, so I think it is AES and they say I owe X amount of money. The same amount to the dollar that I paid in that ugly lump sum last week. I get ornery and ask hubby to check our bank account, since this loan lady is claiming I didn't pay it and I did, dammit. We see a withdrawl so hubby is pissed cause umm...we now have $500 missing! I call my university and bitch to them.

Then I use my not so smart phone to access my account which takes a half hour and probably took a year off our lives as our blood pressure skyrocketed in the mean time.

AND I SEE IT.

SHIT. I think in my mind and wrack my brain and write down a ton of psychotically scribbled Cs and Es and numbers and confirm my oh shit moment. I owed $500 to AES. I paid them. Yes. I also owed, at that moment, an additional $500 but to ACS. Cs, Es, the death of me. I shakily mumbled to hubby "ummm....we just spend another $500. We're caught up now." We yelled and went silent and had a crappy rest of the day cause of my $1,000 mistake.

All because I assumed something. I assumed ACS was on auto withdrawal. I assumed since I corrected my contact info with ACS and AES, they'd both have my correct info (one did one didn't). I assumed that you know, if I was months past due and owed hundreds of dollars, someone would try and contact me (they both had my correct email and phone number). I mean if I am a day late on my car payment, less than $500, I get a few calls that very day. So I assumed since I'd heard nothing, I had nothing to worry about.

Assumptions are asses. See, they even have ass right in them.