Wouldn't it be magical to live in a world where you could just push a button on a web page and the bills were paid?
I couple of weeks ago I had noticed that our Mastercard company, USAA, had raised our credit limit to $22,000. I immediately called them and told them to lower it to the lowest it could go. The agent was very nice. He informed me that the card had now reached $18,600, so the most they could lower it to $19,000. I had him do that and then put a hold on the card. Mark has been charging everything to the credit cards, because he lost his debit card.
Today around 4:00 P.M. I decided to call them back to resubmit the hold. I spoke to a very nice gentleman that told me, "Your husband called in today to report his card lost and cancelled both of your cards. He asked that they be reissued and mailed to your home." I told him I didn't believe that was the case, but since the card was at the limit it wasn't a great concern.
Then the agent informed me, "Well, your husband just made $6,500 in payments." I literally YELLED, "WHAAAATTTT???? We don't HAVE $6,500 in the account!" He responded, "He made one $500 payment today. He also has a $5,000 payment scheduled for February 4th and another $1,000 payment scheduled for the 6th. It was obvious to the man that none of this was OK as I continued to freak out. I asked him, "Can those payments be cancelled???" He said he was able to cancel the last two, but the $500 had already been processed. I then asked him what the name of the bank the payments were to be drawn on. He responded, "BB&T."
I explained everything that was going on. He then told me he had been the person that had spoken Mark that day. What are the odds that the very same agent that he talked to picked up my call as well? The man told me that while speaking to Mark that he seemed "off" and kept changing the conversation every few seconds. But, he also told me that being customer service representative that it wasn't his place to judge the mental situation of a customer. I told him I understood.
I hung up with him and immediately drove to Velocity Credit Union. Mark and I have an old joint savings account there. We had to open it to buy my car back in 2006. There is only $5.00 in the account, but it is joint. I opened a brand new checking and savings account. Right now his paycheck is being direct deposited into our joint BB&T account. He hasn't worked since November, but I do not make enough to cover the house payment and all of the bills alone.
I figured the only way I could make sure he didn't bounce checks in an account with my name on it was to close the account and open new ones. Since that one Velocity savings is joint I will be able to direct deposit his paycheck there and transfer the money to the new account to pay bills when they are due.
After I got the new accounts opened I felt a bit of relief. I still had to wait to close our BB&T account, because the payroll was already scheduled to be deposited on Friday. I'd have to wait until Monday to close that account.
When I left Velocity I had to drive over to Karen Walter's house (Mark's first ex-wife). Mark had taken all of his documentation from the safe at work. I needed a copy of his divorce for my attorney. I called her and she told me she would make a copy for me. Karen has been very supportive through all of this. She has been through all of this before with him.
While I was driving to her house it hit me like a ton of bricks..... We have TWO BB&T accounts. One is personal and one is business. It didn't dawn on me that those payments that he was trying to make might have been from our company account. I drove over to Karen's, got the copy and immediately drove back to the shop.
Everyone had left the shop already, so I went in, turned off the alarm and went to my desk. I called USAA back and this time got another person. I had to re-explain everything that was going on. She looked up the transactions and gave me the last four digits of the accounts. The $500 payment had been made from our personal account. But, the $5,000 and $1000 had been scheduled to come out of our business account. My stomach was doing back flips. The lady also explained that since Mark had ordered the cards today they hadn't been shipped yet. She asked me if I wanted the order destroyed. I told her yes.
I now knew we were going to also have to close our BB&T business account. Mark knows the account number and it is very easy to look up the routing number. Chris and I had opened a Wells Fargo account for All-Safe the first week of January. We had hoped we wouldn't need it. Now we knew we had no choice.
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