When I got sober the last thing in the world that occurred to me was my credit rating. But as time passed, as the fog cleared, and as I began to take stock in my financial future the temptation to have a peak became more important to me. I brought myself back from the depths of hell not only on an emotional, spiritual and career level - but I also did a financial 9th Step that set me on the path of economic recovery. Last fall for the first time in my life, my credit score reached 760. Not perfect. But for a bum like me, not too shabby.
Air France fucked me, and in 2 short months my score has plummeted a hundred points and my credit relationships have dried up like a Savannah well.
You may remember I whined a smidge about the horrible events that all but ruined my vacation last year. Don't get me wrong. I am supremely blessed to have been able to go to the places, and to have done the things I've done. But my last venture was aboard the doomed Brilliance of the Seas that nearly capsized just off the Port of Alexandria last December. Royal Caribbean made it right, and coming that close to dying in the middle of the Mediterranean at 2 o'clock in the morning seemed like as bad as it could get. But the Universe had just begun to play with me.
This was the week that the weather had gone to hell in a handbasket. Our flight out was already poisoned by the snow that blanketed Europe which left us re-booking a cancelled flight, and only making port minutes before they pulled up the gangplank and pulling away.
On the last leg of our cruise we stayed for two days in Barcelona. Broke, the cruise marred by disaster, our moods were dashed and we basically just moped around for two days waiting to go home. The night before we were to leave, I dutifully logged on to Air France's website to check in for our return flight and to request the ridiculously over-priced "additional baggage allowance". You only get 1 carry, and one check in bag. Anything extra is $60, but you can get it for $50 if you check in on line.
Something was up with Air France's website. Every time I entered my credit card number and clicked "purchase" I'd get this stupid error that announced "WE'RE SORRY - OUR RESERVATION TOOL IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER". So I did. And each and every time I tried again, I would get the error. I was starting to panic because if I can't check in and buy my baggage allowance, I could be one of those people stranded at the airport we were hearing about on the news. Horrified, I finally gave up and we just resolved to arrive early ... WAY early ... like 5 hours early ... to ensure we'd make our flight.
Of course, the flight was canceled and we had to rebook. That I expected because I had long since learned to anticipate the worst on this vacation. What I didn't know, and NEVER would have suspected was that each and every time I got that error window instructing me to try again later for baggage allowance, my debit card was being charge $88. 10 Times. Almost a thousand dollars in errant charges, and I didn't even get the discount on the baggage allowance. Naturally, as you might expect with a huge corporation, no one gave a good fuck that there was $880 dollars stolen from my account. One customer service person even patted me on the metaphoric head and said that although it looked like Air France had taken $880 that didn't belong to them, it wasn't actually a withdrawal. "It's just a hold...give it a couple days and you'll see, it will cancel all by itself."
Well it didn't. And 14 faxes later, 20 phone calls, 12 hours and 250 full versions of that horrid piece of shit music they subject you to when you're on hold with Air France and two full months I finally convinced them to return the money to my account.
But by then it was too late. All of the bills I scheduled before we left for vacation had already bounced. That led to fees which topped $500 in the first week. That left us even deeper in the hole, and by the next month we were still trying to stop the hemorrhaging and mitigate the damage. It was all for naught and eventually I was forced to take a loan out on my 401(k) just to keep my mortgage from being forclosed on and losing everything. I mean literally, in two months, I went from happy camper, paying down my debt, erasing my past neglect and charting a new course of freedom from creditors ... to getting "notice of intent to accelerate" and threats of foreclosures, defaults, and shut off notices.
Today, the day I finally paid the last payment to just get us current I popped in to my Equifax account. My credit score was down to 667. That was 16 years of work to get my score up where it was. My "available credit" perpetually reads ZERO on the one remaining credit card I have even though it's half paid. And in just a few weeks as far as my debtors are concerned I've gone from hero to zero.
They say it's best to call the moment you know you're going to have a problem paying. They say it can really help to avoid things like fees and being reported to credit bureaus.
They ... are fucking liars.
Because it doesn't matter a lick what you do. The notices are vomited out by an indifferent computer somewhere at the corporate billing headquarters of Too Big to Fail Inc. And no matter what the calm, reassuring person on the phone says to you, they haven't the faintest idea what the computers are doing, they can't stop it from happening, and they probably really don't even care. Their motivation is to get you to call and get as much data on your situation as possible. There is no benefit to you for calling and getting honest with your bank that your mortgage might be late. None. they're lying. They'd just as soon piss on you as look at you.
That's certainly the truth with Bank of America. And I can tell you it absolutely is the truth with Air France.
So that's how fast it can happen. A tiny little mistake on a website. A mistake that you'd never think in a million years would actually result in money being taken out of your account. And the next thing you know, you're right back where you started when your mother first told you how important it is to pay your bills.
That's all.