I have not posted a diary for a long time but I do read here every day. I have just been too frustrated with everything to do any thing. Today I got a notice from ATT that because of my credit report from Equifax they are putting me on a 15 day payment cycle which means I will have to pay a full months payment every 15 days.
This will be almost impossible for me to do. It is highly punitive and they say there is absolutely no recourse. It is simply policy. Below are the details.
Up until relatively recently, I have only had two hundred dollars a month after I pay my bills for food, clothing, gas, and medicine and I have managed to scrape by. My bill with ATT is about 70 a month for phone and the internet. My bill is due on the 5th and is late by the 7th or the 8th which changes periodically I have no idea why.
I am 67 years old and I had a bad fall a year ago which really incapacitated me in many ways. I did not have a car for a whole year and often could not walk the mile and half to pay my bill. I pay in cash and in person because ATT does not go by postmark and does not have postmarks on any of their mail. Therefore, they can and do say anything they want to collect late fees.
Even paying in cash, they have said it was not posted correctly etc. During the last year I have paid a month a head a couple of times because I got a robo call that scared me. And I have been late by a day or two and paid my late fees of 5.00. I have learned that if you do not pay by 18 days they can cancel your whole account and you loose everything. They did that to me once several years ago even though I was only 15 days late with the receipt to prove it. They gave me back an account but said I lost everything and there was nothing they could do about it. Since then I have never used their email accounts.
So now they are saying I will have to pay 70 every 15 days which could be really abusive. I have not and I remain not willing to authorize them to go directly into my Wells Fargo account. I had a huge problem with that back in the 70s and have refused to do this ever again.
I call Equifax in Georgia. I give them my social security number and all kinds of information and I ask them to send my a copy of the report they sent to ATT. They will only do this if I give them all my addresses since my husband died in 1997. I explain that I got kicked in the face by horse and lost my memory.
I am able to say we lived in Marina Del Ray, then Burbank, then Saugaus, then North Hollywood, then Sylmar, then here in Los Angeles. Because I cannot remember the number or the streets in Marina Del Ray and Sylmar they say they cannot send me this report. This represents 1 yr in Del Ray, Burbank 2 years, Saugus 6 years, Sylmar 1 year, and Los Angeles 6years.
They say there is a major discrepancy but they cannot tell me what it is. And they cannot give me a report without all the numbers. Does anyone know how I can get this.
I know my lawyer did a search in 2002 and found someone using my social security number in Dell Rio Texas and had been for years. However, it was not being posted to my account and notifying social security did not seem to do anything.
Both of these companies say there is no recourse for the disabled and in essence it just too damn bad. Especially ATT, there is entirely unnecessary and highly punitive and for what?
I am open and need any and all suggestions. I have already had two heart attacks and I can feel my blood pressure rising over all of this.
Thanking you in advance for your time and consideration.