I've been having trouble with my home insurance company for a while. With many / most (?) mortgages, home insurance is part of the deal, built into the mortgage payment to protect the lender in case something happens to the house. With credit unions, the type of business I used for my loan, that isn't always the case. The purchaser must secure home insurance or the mortgager has the option of dropping the mortgage or finding insurance for the house at whatever (even higher) rate it may find it.
So every three months, I send the insurance company an exhorbitant sum to keep the roof over my head mine and all is relatively well if not exactly right.
My current problem started back in the summer, just after I broke my back. I'd just sent a check to the insurance company when my checks were stolen. The bank suggested that I immediately close the account to prevent any more loss than I'd already incurred. I was tired and broken. I did what I was told.
Knowing the insurance check was in transit and going to be deposited to draw off of a now dead account, I immediately called the insurance company, explained that the check would be no good and gave them a credit card payment on the spot. Not to worry, they said. Thanks for your business and such stuff. Everything's cool.
Except...
The day before I was about to leave for my Christmas vacation, a Saturday no less, I got a letter in the mail that had been two weeks in transit for some reason.
"Hi there!" it said. "Your account is in arrears by $93 for NSF (check-bouncing) and penalty fees. If we do not receive this sum by midnight " of the next day, Sunday (?!?) " we're going to cancel your insurance, thereby invalidating your mortgage agreement. Oh, yes, and Have A Merry Christmas, you stupid disorganized non-compliant bill-payer, you!"
Okay, perhaps that's not a direct quote, but that was the basic message.
So, there I was, Saturday afternoon, preparing to go on a vacation where I wouldn't be able to get in touch with anyone for nearly two weeks, knowing that, since it was impossible to pay the (seriously unfair) bill before the week-end was over, that I'd probably be in the process of losing my house by the time I got back.
The laughter from the giggling gods was near deafening.
"Try and deal with this one!" they crackled gleefully.
I could have called off my ill-advised (but desperately desired) trip to stay at home and deal with the situation.
There were only two flaws in that plan -
1. Even staying home, I couldn't make the deadline, and
2. I'd already paid quite dearly for the trip and not a penny of it was refundable.
Oh joy!
So I went online, scheduled the fastest payment in the (wrong but I didn't have the time or energy to argue with them threatening my house) amount billed. It was scheduled to (and did) post the following Friday. It was all I could do.
I took the hated threat / notice, pinned it to my bulletin board, locked the door and went on my vacation. Whatever was going to happen, I decided, was going to happen whether I spent the next two weeks cringing in terror or shoved the dread to the back of my head and tried to enjoy the vacation that, considering everything, might prove to be another one of my massive financial follies.
("Hey, she may have lost her house, but, damn, wasn't she was on a great vacation while it happened?")
Oddly enough, things almost worked out. When I returned and settled back into real life, I found my mailbox full of very official notices.
1st - There was the notice from the insurance company that it had indeed cancelled my insurance,
2nd - There was a nasty letter from my mortgage company saying my insurance company had informed them of the cancellation and "mumble, mumble, threat, mumble, ultimatum, mumble, mumble, deadline, mumble, or else, you idiot!" or something to that effect - followed by
3rd - A rescission notice from the insurance company, basically canceling the cancellation of my insurance.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. In a life where I barely get one blaze put out before lightning strikes and another part of my forest flares up, the smoke seemed to be clearing.
Then, of course, something else occurred and I was back in panic mode, grabbing buckets and hoses yet again.
Just Tuesday I received another letter from the insurance company, threatening cancellation again, in seven days this time. According to their records, despite my paying the the billed amount every quarter, I was seriously in arrears - for $887 non-payment of premium.
Excuse me, but wtf?!
And that's why my feverishly sick and unhappy rump was out in the freezing temperatures on Wednesday when I should have been in bed. ( When I went out to my car, though, I really did appreciate my insane foresight in de-icing my car at midnight the night before. ) It took the better part of an hour and every last bit of patience my (overworked with better things to do) insurance agent had, to figure out the problem.
It seems that, despite what I'd been told all the way back in the summer, the check against the closed account had been deposited, rejected AND credited as payment even though the checking account was closed, as I told them it would be when I paid that quarter by an alternate method. They applied the money from that bad check (that I didn't really pay) to my account, accepting it as pre-payment of the following year (not quarter, for some reason only insurance companies could but won't explain).
That explains why I had no idea there was a problem with my insurance. What I can't fathom is how they made the error in the first place and, having made the error, their accounting system took six months to catch it. I also do not understand how it is that they can take six months to find their error and that's obviously okay by them, but they expect me to come up with nearly $900 on a week's notice, under threat, yet again, of cancellation.
So, I think we've got the whole mess sorted out. (Can't be 100% certain ever.) I had to put the payment on a credit card to afford it - great! - but you do what you've got to when battling blazes.
That done, I knocked the bizarre icicles off my car, drove home and fell into bed, exhausted. Fast forward 24-hours and you find me in my NeuroSurgeon's office with a stethoscope on my chest. Normally she doesn't do lungs, but her nurse informed her that normal pre-Doc checks showed I had a fever of 102.
Guess who has pneumonia?
Yep.
(Could someone turn on some heavy metal music to drown out the cacophony of laughter from above?)
There is good news though, or at least bad news put into a holding pattern. (Hey, I take what I can get.) As far as my back is concerned, it has slightly improved since the last visit. NS Doc isn't thrilled with the progress, but she says we can delay the surgery decision. I get to continue wearing the everso stylish and comfortable backbrace for another two months. At that point, another CAT scan and we'll discuss options.
My life is somewhat exhausting.
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