One Step Backwards......Again

Frank and I are very careful about our credit.  I have had only 3 credit cards for many years now.  We always had two, but with the internet I added the third.  I use it only for internet purchases.  I keep a credit limit of only $500 on it.  I figure if someone steals it, they will only get $500 before it shuts them off.

The other two are the ones we use all the time.  One earns airline miles and the other earns cruise points.  Frank uses both of them for his business purchases which includes a lot of food, gas and hotels.  So the balance runs up pretty quickly.  And I generally use the other for everything else.

I pay my insurance, groceries and daily buying stuff.  Lately, I also have used both accounts for the massive amounts of house supplies.  Since we are using Carrie's crews and contractors, I have the ability to purchase the material myself without a contractor mark-up and get the benefit of Carrie's professional discounts.  I have purchased things like counter tops, dry wall, drywall mud and screws, lunch for the guys and cabinets.

Well, at least I tried to purchase cabinets.

I met with Logan at Ourso Designs on Monday and we looked over the final layout of cabinets for the kitchen, guest bath, master bath and den.  We cleaned up about 3 details and felt we had it all ready to order.  They only place orders on Wednesdays.

I left my credit card information with her, the cruise line one.  They require 3/4 down before placing the order.  This morning she had two questions for Jay the contractor, and she was ready to order.

Logan called me at about 4 pm.  She said the card was not accepting the charge.  We realized that since this was a very large amount, the fraud controls were kicking in.  I decided to call the credit card company and ask them to approve the purchase in a one time thing, something we have done before. 

The problem was not only the large amount, but also that we purposefully keep a low credit limit of $15,000 on the account.  To increase the limit would require a request to another department, approval of said request, and we would have to wait 24 hours to complete a charge.  I didn't have that time option.

So I chose to use the airline miles card.   But I called them to get the approval before I called Logan.  Not my first rodeo, you know.

This account is at the same bank we use for personal banking.  The call went well, until we got to the amount.  The credit limit, while higher than the first account, was still not quite high enough.

I offered several creative solutions.  I could transfer the amount of the charge from my checking account to the card, create a credit balance and then charge it out.  No dice, he said.

Second solution was to charge half of the cabinets today, pay it out tonight, then charge the other half tomorrow.  I thought that was a great McGuyver solution!

No dice, but I really didn't understand the reason it wouldn't work actually.

In desperation, I said, check my credit score and my checking account balance, transfer the amount of money you want out of it, just do it before 5 pm so we could order the cabinets.


So it ended with his supervisor agreeing to up the credit limit for 3 days, approving the single purchase from Ourso and getting me to swear on my dog's tail feathers that I would be a good borrower and do the right thing!

By the time I got off the phone to call Logan, it was 5:15 pm and she was gone pecan. 

I lost it.  Again.  Tears.  Again.

It is just too much to take sometimes.  Fifteen minutes means that I will be a week behind in the cabinet order, a week later in November means that we are now into Thanksgiving week and vacations and loss of workers and the holidays. 

So much.  So much.  Too much.

You say I am strong, what I don't tell you is that I have stress diarrhea daily, my stomach is killing me and I cry a lot.  Frank started breaking out in hives yesterday, his inside elbows and knees.   Skin stress. 

Before all the cabinet credit stuff, we thought we would go to see a movie today.  Stress relief.  We chose Deepwater Horizon.  That was the BP oil rig blowout.  Frank is in the industry and is often flying or on a crew boat out to these rigs, although this was not his account -- thankfully. 

He was really interested in seeing this movie, so we chose it over Sully. 

When the blowout part started, it had gotten so intense that I was shaking and trying to calm my  heart beating inside my chest.  When the people started dying, I was sobbing.  He barely got me out of the theater, my legs were like rubber. 

I rode home in the truck trying to catch my breath and still my heart.  I thought I  was going to die right then and there.

It was not the greatest choice of movies, for sure.

And I already knew how it ended.