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Small vent...bad MM day
Nothing too extreme (well, the first one might be), but it just a lot of bad MM juju happening at the same time.
--House I just bought has a tenant already on Section 8 (housing assistance). Today (April 1st) was going to be my first day getting an auto deposit from them for their portion of her rent. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Despite many assurances to the contrary from my case manager there, I'm worried the money went to the previous owner of the house. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to call them yet, but I'm hoping this doesn't turn into a big nightmare. I at least don't need the money right this second, but obviously I want it to be fixed and taken care of sooner rather than later.
--Louisiana "temporarily" raised the state tax to 5%. Which now officially makes my city of residence (NOLA) the city with the highest sales taxes in all of these here United States. Our parish (county) tax is also 5%...so that makes a total sales tax of 10%. Louisiana also lifted exemptions on a lot of items that didn't used to be taxed. In addition, they made a new rule that if a website has even one affiliate living in Louisiana (LA) who grosses more than $50K in sales from said website, the website needs to add sales tax to all sales for LA residents.
The result? Amazon now and abruptly no longer allows anyone from LA to be a seller on their website. Not that I actively sold on Amazon. But I did occasionally sell items here and there on it. And have toyed with becoming more active with it. Never mind.
--Last, but not least. Because I have a high deductible plan, I basically pay for all my medication out of pocket. Three months ago, one of my prescriptions was raised from $115 to $135. I just ordered it again yesterday. Raised AGAIN!!! From $135 to $150. So, in 4 months the price has jumped up 25%. Whatever.
Re: Small vent...bad MM day
I would give the rent deposit until Monday. What I'm thinking is that the place you are getting the funds from send them to your bank on the 1st of the month. If they don't send it out until the 1st, it could take 1-2 business days to actually show in your account. Even if it hits your account today, depending on the timing, it may not show until tomorrow or Monday. Keeping fingers crossed for you that this is the situation.
Sorry to hear about the tax thing & the medication issue. That really sucks. Can you talk to your doctor to see if there is another brand of medication that would serve the same purpose but cost less? Also go to the drug companies website, we found out that for some drugs, the drug makers offer coupons that you can redeem at your pharmacy for savings. For one of our drugs it took the cost from $60 to $5. Not all companies off this, but it doesn't hurt to check.
My work does have a medical plan that is more traditional (copays for dr. visits/medication), but it still doesn't make much sense financially to go that route. With the High Ded. plan, my monthly portion to include myself and my H is only about $35/month. If I switched to the traditional plan, it would be about $300/month just for myself and $575/month for myself and my H. And the copay for that prescription would still be $50.
There just aren't any very good answers. I try to look on the bright side that I essentially have catastrophic coverage for both myself and my H for only $35/month. Which is a whole lot better than having no insurance at all, because I've been in that boat in the past.
Yep, that was exactly how I was feeling!
I am so sorry to hear about your SL hassles. $100 is a lot to bump up your payment with almost no notice! I'd be really frustrated also. Good luck talking to them today. Let us know how it turns out.
Nope, it doesn't make me feel better, lol. I'm just sorry you live in an "out of control sales tax" city also. Ugh, that is so much money to spend on medical stuff in such a short time. I definitely feel for you all. Mine is more of a slow bleed of about $400/month all year long. I see we both have plans where, it's not just a high deductible plan, it's a REALLY high deductible. Creepy internet hugs back to you.
I've had high ded. plans with other companies, but usually the deductible was more in the $2K-$3K range and I could start getting some relief at the middlish end of the year. My current company has a plan where the deductible is (I think) at the max of what it legally can be. It's at something like $6850 for the family plan.
Thanks for the update. It sounds like there was some "across the board" reconfiguring of many of their SLs, hence the increase in both payment and interest rate. At least they are now giving you some time to readjust your budget, but it's still bad news all around.
I had a recent experience like that with my HELOC, also a variable rate loan. I noticed a couple statements ago that my interest rate got bumped from 4.5% to 4.75%. Pretty much had your same reaction, lol. "Whaaa, why did this happen when interest rates in general are as low if not lower than when I got this line? Oh well, whatever."