Simple Living
(featured column)

Checking Paperwork Pays
by Deann Curtis

You know you are supposed to do it.  We all know about it, and it is a rather simple thing to do.  But, when you get behind on time or money it seems that checking statements from creditors or even the utility companies takes a back burner for a while.  I am here to tell you though, that you will save money if you take just a few minutes to check your paperwork every month.

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As I have written in past months, we have gotten help with our debt problem by going to Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS).  They have been able to reduce the interest rates on all of our accounts.  But before that happened, I had to check our paperwork.  

One of the companies had not gotten the proposal from CCCS.  So they had not lowered the interest rate on our account.  By checking the paperwork, I was able to get this taken care of within a day.  This will save us about thirty dollars a month.

In addition, when we signed up with CCCS, we had paid off three of our credit cards with our tax return.  But, the next month, we got statements from each account asking for more money.  With all three accounts it added up to about one hundred dollars.  

We could have just paid them and been glad to be done with them.  But we had already paid each account in full over the telephone at the time we closed them.  We DID NOT owe this money.  Instead, we called the companies and explained the situation.  The charges were then reversed and the balances all became zero.

We have a gas heater that we don't use often because we don't like it.  But, even with the pilot light turned off, we are charged a three dollar fee each month to stay connected to the gas service.  This month when I checked the statement instead of finding the normal three dollar charge, we had also been charged over ten dollars for using the gas.  

I took the statement outside and checked the meter against what the statement said.  As it was wrong, I called the company and let them know about the error.  They sent out another person to read the meter and ended up reversing the charges.

All of these errors were made by people.  People make mistakes.  But, when they happen to you, you need to get them corrected.  And you can do it too, just by checking your paperwork.

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Copyright © 2003 by Deann Curtis

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