BBB: Do that Boring Buck-saving Busywork!

[Turtle]

Do taxes count? Because until one knows if there is a refund or amount due, one might be on the hook for late filing penalty. Schrödinger's penalty.

So, yeah. Taxes done.

Same here.

[midweststache]

Semi-annual increase of our Internet bill (basically expiring off the promo rate).spoke with a retention specialist got it cut back in half.

ROR: ~$250 for about 5 minutes of work.

[Fru-Gal]

I plan to apply for low-income utilities today, now that I know our AGI for our household size qualifies.

[crocheted_stache]

I finally got started consolidating an old HSA into a current HSA. The destination account will let me invest what's in it. I was dreading having to call both institutions during their business hours (invariably in some other timezone) and generally hassle with bureaucracy, but there was a web form to initiate this transaction, and so far it appears to work.

I will need to follow up to empty and close an accompanying placeholder checking account, which just started charging a monthly inactivity fee. They assure me I agreed to this when I signed up.

Finding this post reminded me to try again to generate some activity in the account that charged the fee, and I think I managed it this time. That should give me time to close both the HSA (still in process) and the placeholder checking account.

[Gin1984]

Filled out paperwork to get a partials reimbursement for childcare from my employer. They give a small stipend for care related to school closings but life has been busy and I have not filled out the paperwork until today. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

A couple of projects:
1) Went to book flights with a United credit that expired in January of 2025. Email confirmation & app both show that date. When I tried to book a flight for October, says it's beyond the travel date. Spent over an hour on the phone with United, and it turns out that I'd used a $75 credit (on a $10k reservation - trip for four to Turkey) & that reset the expiration date on the back end, with no notice. United was able to fix it, and reissue manual credits (which, ironically have a longer expiration), but if I hadn't noticed this or waited longer to book flights, they may have expired.
2) My doctor's office made a typo in their bill (spelled the name of their hospital incorrectly?!), which caused my insurance to consider a bunch of labs out of network, and they paid zero. I've since paid, because we couldn't figure out what happened. I've made numerous calls to the hospital & my insurance yesterday, and I think we have a solution. It's a $1760 bill, so I'm very motivated to keep chasing it until it's resolved.

[mspym]

@MaybeBabyMustache huzzah for winning against United! I had such a bad time trying to use cancelled flight credits from Expedia* that I gave up in the end, took the loss as a lesson to never use them again and badmouth them every chance I get.

Our insurance is about to rollover for the year and I have started the process of getting quotes from different companies. I also battled the govt id phone line to get my details changed from Australia to NZ so I can check my status with the IRD. I’d been putting that job off for 9+ months.

Edit: when I closed my accounts in Australia, I found I had an unexpected $165 refund in there - earning 0.10% interest - which was a nice surprise.
 
*to use the credits you had to call them, in the UK, with the time difference from Australia. Luckily my phone didn’t charge me for international calls to the UK because there was no free phone, I was on hold for over an hour, dealt with a very hostile man when I finally got someone, who couldn’t be convinced that my credit hadn’t expired. After another hour, Ofpym was “this is not worth your time and stress” and we vowed to only purchase directly from the airlines in future.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@mspym - if it was less money, I may have given up. For my health care one, I would have absolutely given up, if I were still working & just paid out of pocket. Because chasing this stuff down is endlessly frustrating & a huge time suck.

[Dicey]

@MaybeBabyMustache huzzah for winning against United! I had such a bad time trying to use cancelled flight credits from Expedia* that I gave up in the end, took the loss as a lesson to never use them again and badmouth them every chance I get.

Our insurance is about to rollover for the year and I have started the process of getting quotes from different companies. I also battled the govt id phone line to get my details changed from Australia to NZ so I can check my status with the IRD. I’d been putting that job off for 9+ months.

Edit: when I closed my accounts in Australia, I found I had an unexpected $165 refund in there - earning 0.10% interest - which was a nice surprise.

*to use the credits you had to call them, in the UK, with the time difference from Australia. Luckily my phone didn’t charge me for international calls to the UK because there was no free phone, I was on hold for over an hour, dealt with a very hostile man when I finally got someone, who couldn’t be convinced that my credit hadn’t expired. After another hour, Ofpym was “this is not worth your time and stress” and we vowed to only purchase directly from the airlines in future.

FTFY. Asshats deserve to be called out. That's an excellent resolution.