Monday, November 1, 2010

Taking the Wheel

It's a lot easier than it sounds. Right now, living at my parents, I exist, and that's pretty much it. It isn't much of a life, it's maddeningly stressful at times, but on the whole it is incredibly easy.

Mind you in the last 48 hours I've had to way-lay ALL my plans to deal with not one but TWO (of three) drug addicts my mother adopted, one who overdosed at his son's big football game, and one who robbed my mother and went off to buy drugs. SOMEHOW, because I am the only person in the house who can function without drugs presumably, I have been elected RESPONSIBLE ADULT. And as RESPONSIBLE ADULT the responsibility of dealing with these matters and their aftermath has been imparted upon me.

I will spare you the gritty details but I have gotten nothing done and the stress is giving me an ulcer.

But I digress. While it is my personal mission to actually earn the title of RESPONSIBLE ADULT through hard work and not merely through being the least irresponsible, it seems my entire being is waging war against me. My body would rather laze about, accomplishing nothing, and my mind, while certainly at it's breaking point with the rollercoaster of chaos that goes on around here, is even more terrified of what's in store for me as I ready my ship and prepare to set sail in search of that mythical place where all people go when they grow up.

My affairs, you see, are not in order, and it's going to make things difficult. The first thing that scares me is my credit. Not only is my credit history completely trashed thanks to a slew of false claims from medical bills and my parents abusing my social security number to open accounts with Columbia Gas and Verizon (and DEFAULT on everything but the gas), but it's basically impossible for me to get a checking account for the next 5 years.

When Sky changed to Huntington my account was over-drafted. I played hell to get it paid in the aftermath (since I didn't technically have an account with Huntington they had to get an intern to dig through the paper files to find my old Sky account and then manually transfer it to Huntington, a process which took me the entire business day at the bank to complete) and Chexsystem still has it as a flag.

First flag.

I opened an account 3 years ago with Fifth-Third and, after an incident where I over-drafted to pay my phone bill, their OD fees completely ate 6 paychecks that were direct deposited and management at all levels REFUSED to suspend charges, freeze the account or work with me in any way until the account was resolved or it reached it's maximum allowed time, which would have eaten another 4 paychecks and still somehow left me $500 in debt to them. So I flipped them the bird, told them to eat their charges, and moved to National City, earning myself a second Chexsystem flag.

In retrospect even if I had resolved it amicably I still would have a flag so damned if I do damned if I don't.

My third and most damning mistake happened very recently. While on the hunt for fresh employment I received a letter and a check for close to $4000 via snail mail. The letter explained in some detail that they were hiring mystery shoppers and that the check was to be used in my first two assignments and included my payment, and broke it down. Naturally suspicious I went to the internet and Googled the company and all names on the letter. A few partial hits but nothing to throw up a red flag. So I call the number provided and the man who is to be my supervisor spends the next hour and a half answering my questions and painting a very believable picture of the whole affair. He explains how they get their potential employees from lots of places, but that, if I had recently applied for unemployment (which I had) and filled out the application for work at the end (which I did) they probably found me through them. The company is based in Canada, but the nearest US branch is in New Jersey, and sending half of the check is a trial by fire. They keep a close eye on the checks they send out and any checks which are deposited before they've heard from someone are frozen until they've spoken to the person. Convinced, I decide that, if nothing else, I will deposit the check and if it's a fake the bank will let me know.

Two days later I first call my bank's 800 number to inquire. The employee looks it up, says it has passed all but the Federal level of clearance and sees no reason to conclude it is anything but genuine, and tells me the full balance has been made available. I go to the bank and inquire a second time from the teller and she again assures me that the check is very unlikely to come back and hands me the full amount of the check I had deposited two days prior. As per instructions I go to the nearest Western Union and send it to where I am told to send it, where a very suspicious Western Union employee asks me if I know the person and that she would hate to see me get ripped off. Secure, I brush it off and call my supervisor, who tells me to proceed to my second assignment at the local Home Depot while he finishes my paperwork, he should call me back in an hour.

4 hours pass, and finally, much too late, my alarms start to go off.

While I Googled everyone on the letter, I had not Googled the recipient of my Western Union transfer, a Mr. James Duru. Google that yourself. I then realized that when I Googled everything else, nothing came up. Not a Facebook, not a business website, nothing. Concerned but trying not to panick, I called my "supervisor" and he assured me things were fine, he would look into the websites, and call me back in an hour.

2 more hours pass and I call. The number has been disconnected, and I realize I have been mugu'd

Panicking, I first call the bank hotline, trying to inquire without setting off alarms, as the bank still says the check is good. When I inquire what could happen if the check comes back bad and I've already dispersed the funds, the employee candidly admits that the bank should at least be partially responsible for allowing me to have access to such a large check, as them allowing me to have the money was them promising me the check was good, not the other way around, and it was their bad for letting it happen, not mine.

Unfortunately the bank manager, while understanding, was not inclined to agree or give merit to that idea. When the check bounced I went in to explain my predicament and was offered no option outside of paying them the amount owed, and the kindness that if I did so promptly they wouldn't flag me on Chexsystems. When I contacted their collection agency the agent was aghast they had not had me sign an affidavit proclaiming the activity fraudulent and suggested I do so at once. Yet when I called the bank the manager explained that all the affidavit would do was clear me of any wrong-doing should the perpetrator be caught, which was unlikely to say the least. So when the second collection agent called and demanded money and I told her my story, she marked me as unable to pay and forwarded my account to their legal team with a note that I was mugu'd, but that doesn't alleviate the Chexsystem mark or the $4k debt on my credit score.

There are times when I think about all of this at once. I let the full weight of my financial debt bear down upon me until I can't breathe, until it might crush me, and only when I feel like I can no longer hold it do I push it aside and forget about it, because there's nothing else I can do right now.

Well, that's not entirely true, and it's not as bleak as it feels. I have requested paper copies of my Chexsystem report and my credit history from all three CRA's via AnnualCreditReport.com and intend to dispute as many of the claims against me as I can, and resolve those that can't be disputed or that can't be dropped.

That does me very little good in the short-term, though, as I still cannot get a checking account easily, and my credit history is will still be a 400 lb gorilla when it comes time to get an apartment.

After my credit though... well that's really what scares me most. It's hard enough to get ahead in life without handicaps, and I'm feeling a little bit like I've been unfairly crippled. Most of what holds me back either isn't my fault at all, like the Verizon bills or the faulty medical bills, or isn't entirely my fault, being mugu'd, for instance; the bank GAVE me that money it should NOT be my fault they cashed a faulty check. I don't feel like those things should be held against me and they're going to be, and nobody is going to want to hear why I have a horrible credit score or 3 red flags in Chexsystems all they're going to see is the credit score and damn me.

I will fight every last thing held against me. If I can't win, I will try to settle. If I cannot settle, I will, as I can by law, attach a 100-word explanation to EVERY DEBT still attributed to me, and in that way someone my side of the story is there as well as the ugly numbers.

The fear cripples me sometimes, but ultimately it strengthens my resolve.

And it's not all doom and gloom! I will have some very exciting news to share here soon, but I don't want to spoil it.