I have screwed up. I'd LOVE to blame someone else, but chances are, it is all on me. I have a certain bill for a utility that I pay online. This month, I paid it like normal. But, for some reason, it did not go through and I didn't realize it until I got a nice (not) letter in the mail from them yesterday. The letter said my payment had been returned unpaid. Well, I know that is not the case because the money is in the account. The only thing I can think of that happened is that I entered the account or routing numbers incorrectly. I was in a hurry when I was paying bills, and chances are I messed it up royally.
I went back through my emails to find the confirmation so I could check the numbers. Crap. I never got an email. And I didn't realize it until now. I wanted to check my bank account online, because I have gotten one of these notices before when the payment had cleared, but somehow I messed up the password typing it too fast and got locked out of my account. Of course I can't fix THAT issue until the bank opens today.
So, what will this screw up cost me? $25 in returned payment fees. Time off work to go get either cash, cashiers check or money order. Time off work to go to the utility office to pay the bill. Time searching for a parking place. Money to feed the meter. And of course this must all be done by Friday, because while they said I had 10 days from the date of the letter, they waited 4 days after printing the letter to mail it so time is short and the 10th day falls on Easter Sunday. I'm betting they aren't open on Easter Sunday!
I would have been better off not rushing through this one and just paying the damn bill late! Sigh.
I did the same thing last year with my power bill. I had 2 payment options set up with them "checking" and "debit". I had been using checking, as the debit was from an old closed checking account. I was in a hurry and chose the wrong payment option and didn't realize it until they were calling wanting to know where their payment was! It cost me $30. You can bet I quickly went back to my account on their website and deleted the old payment method!
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