If you are in the middle of debt hell my heart is with you. The telephone ringing incessantly has to be the worst of it. For those of you that are or have been in the same hell know exactly what I am talking about. I made the choice in the beginning to answer each and every call that came in. If I was not home then I would return the call as soon as I could. The conversation would always go the same way. THEM: What are your intentions in clearing this debt? ME: I have no funds at this time. THEN depending on the kindness of the creditors would depend on the next response from them. Several times I was called an idiot or lazy etc. When I would hang the phone up I would feel like I was the biggest loser on the face of this earth. How could I have gotten myself in this mess?

Who are the worst debit collectors that call? Allied Interstate probably tops my list. The FIRST day on receiving a message on my answering machine they not only contacted me, but also my husband’s sister in Atlanta, my sister in Boston and my sister in Beverly. Allied Interstate did not even allow me one day to return their call before calling everyone else. When I confronted Allied Interstate on their calling practices they denied everything. I was told that I was the only number that was called. Even when we told the woman on the other end that we had her voice on my sister’s answering machine.

One of the most frightening situations that occurred happened with Bank of America. In 2007, my husband called from work and asked what in the world did I buy for $2,400 and why did I take it out of his expense account. Needless to say, I told him that I didn’t buy anything. After some VERY quick research, we found out that Bank of America had taken $2,400 out of our account due to non-payment of some of our BUSINESS debt. Just like that. All of the wind went out of my sails and for the bazillionth time I began to panic.

Now, before many of you jump on the wagon and say DAMN, those people have that much money in their account? Yes we do. Every week in fact and it is gone every week. My husband travels during the week for his job. We no longer can have a credit card and we have to pay cash for everything. His company would reimburses him weekly (thank the Lord). To help better manage the money and for him to use it solely for work, we set up a separate bank checking account just for his traveling expenses.

If you or anyone in your family is in the same boat, I encourage you to do the same also. Every bank that I know of will set up a second checking account and link it to the main one. This has so saved us from dipping into our personal monies for travel expense and we can easily track expenditures.

Now, back to Bank of America. At the time, my husband asked me to call our Attorney while he visited the local Bank of America in the State he was in. Our Attorney was unable to help. He said that somewhere in all of that wonderfully confusing fine print that Bank of America has their customers sign, is a clause giving them the right to take the money if we were in default. NOTE: I have since found out since writing this blog from my friend who is a Vice President at a credit union in Boston that ANY financial institution that you have loans/credit cards etc., AND a checking savings account will do the same thing in regards to taking money out of your account if you are in default on any of the loans/credit cards. I highly recommend that you find a bank that that you do not have any loans/credit cards with and open a new account until you can sort out your finances.

When my husband arrived at the bank, he told me that the woman at Bank of America Branch office was actually very kind and called the credit department at the bank. Somehow he convinced them to settle on the three accounts and “return” $1,800 of the $2,400. Due to the settlement he had to make payments until December of that year to “make good” of the settlement deal that was struck.

We have since switched all of our accounts to a bank that we have no loans or credit cards with so that we can avoid this situation in the future.

Best to all of you that are in debt crisis. There is so much that I have learned over these several years and I will attempt to relate my stories over time. Keep the faith!

Peace be with you.

Kelly