(Warning: This post is going to be a rant; nothing more, nothing less. If you don’t want to hear about my travails with my health insurance company (with me ranting and raving the whole time), feel free to come back later. On the other hand, if you want to know what made me the maddest I’ve been in a long, long while, read on…)
It all started nearly a month ago. I wrote out a check for my April health insurance premium to Capital Blue Cross near the end of March. I made sure there was enough money in my checking account to cover the check, noted the transaction in my check record, and took it over to the post office to send it out. In short, I was a good insurance policy holder.
But then, something funny happened. The check was never cashed. I kept dutifully watching my checking account, but it was soon April, and still the check hadn’t been cashed. I ended up calling Capital Blue Cross, and they said the check hadn’t been received and they would try to find it. I called again a few days later, and was told to just resend the check.
At this point, I was rather perturbed; but, since I didn’t know what happened to my first payment, I decided the best approach would be to simply write another check. I sent it in, it was cashed within a few days, and my coverage continued unabated. Luckily, Capital Blue Cross doesn’t charge any late or nonpayment fees, so I thought that everything was worked out.
Fast forward to today. I sent in my payment for May a few days ago. It was cashed on Tuesday, leaving me with about one hundred dollars in my checking account. No problem; I have enough in savings to pay all my bills for May, I’ll just need to transfer some money from my other accounts.
BUT, yesterday the old check was cashed, causing my bank account to be overdrawn.
This infuriates me to no end. First, the fact that they were able to cash this check after all this time means that it was their fault it was lost initially, and that I had to deal with all this aggravation. Second, I was following their directives in writing that second check, doing so in good faith that I would not be double charged for April. And third, because of all this, I had to worry about my bank charging me an overdraft fee simply because I was trying to keep my health insurance up to date.
Luckily, I noticed this problem before the close of business yesterday, so I was able to go to my local bank branch (it’s a PNC, just for the record) and argue my point with one of the service reps. She agreed that the error was on the part of Capital Blue Cross, and faxed over the copies of the checks that were on file and a description of the error. As of this writing, I haven’t been able to reach Capital Blue Cross, although I’m hoping for a quick resolution of this problem.
Before anyone asks, I have learned some things from this debacle myself; chief among them being to keep enough money in my checking account to cover any and all outstanding checks. Just because a check has gone missing, doesn’t mean it won’t work its way out of whatever corner of the bureaucracy it happens to land, and potentially be cashed at the worst possible time. I had been assuming the first check would never be cashed, and transferred money out of that account under that assumption. In hindsight, trying to gain a bit more interest from my online savings accounts while risking overdraft fees was a case of being penny wise and pound foolish.
I’ve also gained a renewed respect for the advantages of online bill payment. I’ve never had these sort of problem with my credit card bills, both of which I pay online. I am most definitely going to set up online bill pay for any accounts I hold in the future. (In what strikes me as a case of horrible timing, Capital Blue Cross did send my information about their automatic bill pay system after my first check didn’t reach them; it was the first time I had heard about this plan, which could have saved me quite a bit of time and money. I sent it in, but still received a paper bill for May, so perhaps by June I’ll be able to pay online.)
I’ll keep you posted on how this situation is resolved. Thanks for letting me rant a bit, and I hope that my experience can be a learning experience, if nothing else.
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The Weakonomist
on April 30 2009
I’ve had similar bad experiences, so has my fiancée with banks. My employer overpaid a bonus by $100 (though it was the amount I was told) and debuted my account through direct deposit. My Chase credit card payment bounced as of a result and I was hit with a $40 bad payment fee and $35 in NSF fees from my own bank (also my employer). My fiancée had her credit card company lose her payment after it was cashed but before credited to her account.
The only hole I see in your story was in issuing a stop-payment. This shiuld have voided the original check.
Roger
on April 30 2009
Weakonomist,
Sounds like you and your fiancée have quite a few stories to tell. Unfortunately, my bank would charge me for a stop-payment order, so from the perspective of saving money on fees, it’s essentially a wash.
The most infuriating thing is that a large deposit was credited to my account today, so had the check been cashed one day later, I wouldn’t have been hit with any fees, at all. Again, with any luck, things will be sorted out soon; I’ll just need to be more careful in the future.