Saturna

i am someone who has never been very good at this money thing. we were pretty strapped growing up and so i learned a lot about dealing with creditors. i could recognize them on the phone when they called and deflect them from my mom if she was tired from a long day at work, giving her an opportunity to call them back when she had the strength.

when i was in junior high school, i even thought that the lady calling to tell my mom i was going to be inducted into the national honor society was a bill collector. it was supposed to be a secret, so i guess my mistake in that case worked out.

i never really learned how to save, never really had much guidance on that level because we were busy trying to simply eat. we made it, and i was surrounded by priceless love in my home.

less than a month ago, i was in a fender bender. i was driving on germantown parkway at about 7pm and i ran into a woman driving a honda civic. the front license plate holder on my car left an indention on her rear bumper. i gave her my name and phone number and told her we would work it out. i had just gotten the other car covered, but could not afford to add mine to the policy, so i was without insurance on the car i was driving, but willing to uphold my financial responsibility.

she called me the next morning, had an estimate of about $450, and asked for my credit card number. i explained that i do not have a credit card, i have a debit card. that i will make good on the debt, but that i would have to do it in increments. i also asked her to see if her uninsured motors coverage would cover this and maybe i could pay the deductible if it would not make her insurance go up.

two days later i get a call from state farm, asking me about this. the guy tells me that i would owe the full amount, and i told him that was fine, but i would need to make a payment plan. he says that this will not be a problem, they will fix the car, then get back to me about the payment plan.

fast forward to this week and i have a couple of weird incoming numbers on my phone. i do not check my messages regularly. my job nor my life require that i do so, and it costs peaktime minutes to call my voicemail, so i usually wait until after 9pm and try to remember. it is not high on my list of things, and i enjoy that about my life.

yesterday about 4 or so i get another call from this number, and i happened to catch it and was free to answer. turns out it is a guy from some company, calling about this amount due. his energy is immediately aggressive, and he starts of by telling me that he has left me two messages in the past two days, and sent me a letter (which i have not yet received) in an admonishing tone. i try to ignore that and just get to the reason why he is calling. he wants me to pay for the claim, which turned out being $516 and some change.

i explained to him what happened and that state farm assured me that they would work out a payment plan with me. that i do not understand why a creditor is calling me, i expected a call or an invoice from state farm. he asks me what i was thinking on a payment plan. i told him that i could do $100 a month, with an initial payment of $116 and whatever change was owed.

he says:
"this is a very small claim. this is the smallest claim on my desk. can you pay this off in two payment within a month?"

i say:
"it may seem like a small amount to you, but it is not to me. i would be unable to do that and still be able to feed my family, but i am willing to act in good faith in this. i simply do not want to commit to something i cannot uphold."

he says:
"is there a relative that has a credit card or some money that you can borrow to pay this off, and then you could make the $100 payments to them?"

i explain:
"if i had had that resource, i would have used that to begin with and paid the woman for her car the first day she called me, avoiding state farm altogether. i was assured i woulf be able to set up a payment plan with state farm."

he says, more aggressively:
"this is the smallest claim on my desk, i want it out of here, not with some $25 dollar payment every month."

at this point, i recognize that i am being treated very poorly by this guy and make my move to get off the phone. i ask him if i can reach him at the number he called from, and what information i need to have when i call back. i tell him that i will call him back by monday with what i have worked out, but that it will not be the full amount or two payments.

he "let's me know" that he can take my license if i do not pay the debt. he is talking over me, interrupting me, not listening to me at all. in fact, he has not listened to me the entire conversation.

i tell him to please stop being rude to me, that i am willing to work out the debt, but that i cannot use grocery money to do so. he claims he is not being rude. i tell him that he may not be using rude words, but that he is tone is one of contempt and aggression, and that he has no right to treat me this way.

he counters again with the fact that he can take my license, in a very threatening tone. absolute judgment on the part of this guy. he has royally pissed me off by this point. i say, "you need to stop being rude to me. you will hear from me by monday with what i can work out. i hope you are enjoying your position of power." click, i hung up.

i immediately call state farm and talk to someone there. she was very kind, and did not really let up on the fast payment thing, but tone and intent are everything. she suggested i pay 250, then the balance a month later, 4 days before christmas. what she was basically getting across is that i need to may as much as i can as fast as i can. i told her how rude this person was to me, and that i felt as if state farm was not acting in good faith to deal with me in this way.

she asked if i had asked to speak to this guy's supervisor. i had not. i was too pissed off and hurt and angry to make that move because i would have raved like a lunatic and cried and totally not have been taken seriously. i will be making that call today, from a calm place.

if i could come up with that money that fast, my son will have no christmas. already things are super slim, and this is the first year he is even aware of santa. i am willing to cover the debt and do not think that 20% payments are too much to ask. i can even get together a larger downpayment or something. i just do not understand why they would not want to fairly deal with someone who is willing to work with them and give them their money!

what pisses me off about this is that i was honest. i gave the woman my phone number, when i could have written a false name and number and just blown it off. yet now, i am being treated like a deadbeat piece of shit. hurt, disgusted, and totally disheartened that despite my efforts to be honest and uphold my responsibility, i am treated subhuman.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 11th, 2005 at 8:43 am and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.