Freedom December 22, 2008

I posted about the quickly-approaching escape from credit card debt a few days ago and coincidentally got a call from my credit counseling service late last week.  I wasn’t home at the time, and the voicemail message said only to call.  There was no reason given.

I was a little concerned as I dialed the number the rep gave me, since I’ve actually spoken to a real, live person only a handful of times in the four years I’ve been on the program.  The rep who answered had me run through the usual identity verification process, and then asked the reason for my call.  I had to tell her I didn’t know, just that I’d been told to call.  This prompted a bit of account research on her part, but soon she’d found what she was looking for:  there was a problem with one of my accounts.

Oh bloody hell.  I just waxed poetic to the internet at large about how wonderfully I was doing, and now I’ve gone and mucked something up.

It seemed that one of my accounts had been mistakenly closed, and the creditor had contacted CCCS for payment.  Interestingly enough, I had just mailed in a photocopy of my statement showing a zero balance on that account, and had deposited an account overpayment refund check a day or two before, for exactly the amount I seemed to owe.

The final consensus was that someone at CCCS had misread my account balance upon receiving the copy of my account statement, and hadn’t noticed the negative sign in front of the balance when it was entered into the system.  Half an hour or so on the phone smoothed things out, for which I was happy.  Then the account rep said something that made my heart jump into my throat.

“It looks like you have enough banked in your account here, I’m going to call your creditors and get payoff amounts, and you can start the new year clean and fresh.”

What?

It turns out I was further ahead than I thought.  Two days after that account trouble call, I received another phone call congratulating me on completing the program, confirming the cancellation of my weekly automatic withdrawals, working out final details, and advising me of the next steps I need to take to rebuild my credit.  What a beautiful way to end this year and begin the next.

I took the call in the middle of my work day, and was nearly in tears.  So many long months of sacrifice and self-denial; so many weeks of worry, knowing how much I had to spend after my CCCS payments were taken out, and realizing that I had $3 to last me until payday on Friday; so much shame for getting myself into that mess.  It’s taken a few days for the realization to sink in, and it hasn’t fully done so yet.  Today I still had that knot of worry in the pit of my stomach, checking my bank account to see how much I had left for the week, but the withdrawals have been stopped as promised, and for the first time in years I can let the pennies take care of themselves for a time.

With Christmas swiftly approaching and this weight lifted off me, I  admit I splurged a little bit more on a few gifts than I was planning on just a week ago.  This time, though, I have the money to cover it all up front and a cushion to spare, and payday is approaching when finally, after all this time, my savings will begin to grow.

It sounds corny and cliched, but this year, my financial freedom is the best gift I could possibly receive, made even more precious by the fact that with the help of professionals, I was able to do it for myself.

I’m proud of me.

(I want to thank the folks at Holidailies for including my entry about my brother in their Best of Holidailies listing, and say that everyone’s kind comments are appreciated.)