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.

[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.

Old HSA is transferred and closed. Accompanying old checking account is closed, with a check for the small remaining balance to be issued Monday. The destination institution has options for investing the HSA money, which I do still need to set up, but which I think I found and can easily do. This has been on the list for way too long.

[Fru-Gal]

We qualified for three low-income programs! Looking forward to some lower bills for a few years…

[oneday]

Linked up a churning bank account to main bank account. Once I'm sure the direct deposit is no longer going to the churning account, I'll transfer the money back & close it. Simplicity is underrated.

[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.

Still working on #2, since I never heard back from my insurance company. Dealing with insurance is *so* much fun!!

[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.

Old HSA is transferred and closed. Accompanying old checking account is closed, with a check for the small remaining balance to be issued Monday. The destination institution has options for investing the HSA money, which I do still need to set up, but which I think I found and can easily do. This has been on the list for way too long.

And it's invested! I can check this one off the list at long last. While I was at it, I adjusted my 401k allocation in a direction that should reduce fees by about $500 per year.

[crocheted_stache]

Canceled and restarted as digital-only a subscription for a magazine I read, before it auto-renewed. There was no way to convert the subscription directly from print to digital.  Saves $20/year (shrug) and stops a stack of magazines piling up on the coffee table (yay!). I'm giving myself credit here mainly because it was a hassle.

[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.

Still working on #2, since I never heard back from my insurance company. Dealing with insurance is *so* much fun!!

After numerous calls on all sides (doctor's office & insurance + insurance "concierge"), the labs were billed at a different code than they typically have been, which is why they've been covered in the past, but not this time. I did ask my "concierge" to follow up with the doctor about whether these were preventative labs (how they've been covered in the past & also because I have an ongoing autoimmune disease), so maybe that will work. If nothing else, I've driven this to ground & have spent more than enough time trying to understand why this was denied & working through various options to have it covered.

Also cancelled a subscription to a trail app that I tried on our hiking trip. It was free for seven days, so cancelled it before the trial period elapsed.

[Just Joe]

Reviewed our auto insurance last week. Raised deductibles on the one car with full coverage. Took one of the older vehicles insurance down to liability only as required by state law here. Not sure why it had fancy coverage anyhow, its only worth $2K or so.

Saved perhaps $750 this coming year.

I want to review the house insurance maybe next week and see if I can raise deductibles there too. I don't want to make too many changes at once so the agent clerk doesn't make mistakes.

Last week, all the adjustments, this week buying a car, next week maybe adjusting home coverage.

The insurance company probably loves us b/c we have never filed a claim in 20+ years.

Just remembered I need to check an IRS tax payment. Seems somehow we missed that DW's withholding was incorrect at her job so we owed several thousand dollars this year. Never before, just this year. Hmmm. A mistake was made, not sure by whom b/c neither of us recall making any changes but whatever. Didn't want to ding our emergency fund for that so I put it on a payment plan. Done in a six months or so.

[chasingthegoodlife]

Two boring but overdue tasks ticked off today:

1) Reviewed my insurance and reduced my income protection cover (Since I’ve reduced my work hours, I’ve been paying for a higher level of cover than I was eligible to have paid out - ooops!) . Saving maybe $50 per year.

2) Opened a new super account for my husband with cheaper investment options - saving around $1000 per year at the current balance and much more when we rearrange our assets next year.

Next step - finishing and submitting milage claim for work.

[chasingthegoodlife]

Milage reimbursement submitted!

Another $150 or so back in my pocket.

[Agatha Thrifty]

Finally did the ridiculously simple paperwork to port my dinosaur landline phone number to VOIP with my ISP.  Cost will be half of what I have been paying for a phone I frequently leave unplugged due to the volume of robocalls.

Bonus, I will be able to move the phone out of my kitchen and into some other room where it will be less intrusive.

[oneday]

Linked up a churning bank account to main bank account. Once I'm sure the direct deposit is no longer going to the churning account, I'll transfer the money back & close it. Simplicity is underrated.

Direct deposit updated & transfer scheduled. All that is left is waiting, then closing the churned account.

Also dealt with a medical billing issue. I am supposed to be refunded $10. We'll see.

[Rural]

Closed two checking accounts because they were compromised in the MOVEit breach, opened a new one, changed direct deposit to the new one.

[Sugaree]

I have to have new tires.  All four of mine have less tread left than I'd like and one has a not-so-slow leak that I haven't been able to locate or plug.  It is what it is.  I went through my insurance company's website and got 25% off, so basically four tires for the price of three.  I will also be able to submit my receipt for a mail-in rebate for an additional $75 back.