The end of the Wachovia saga...

Well, truly, I am not blind to the fact that this is not THE end to the Wachovia saga - that's not until my loans are fully paid off in 4 years (or less!)... but this is the end of this particular saga.

So remember when I said that I overpaid my monthly payment (x5) in October? And then I got really mad when they automatically withdrew my normal monthly payment 3 days later, even though they usually stop my auto payment when I make a separate payment of any amount?

Yeah.

Well, a week later I got a letter from them in the mail - and I was thinking... huh, this must just be payment confirmation, couldn't they have emailed it to me instead of wasting paper and fuel? (My, I'm getting crunchy, aren't I?)

Nope. Instead, this letter was informing me that since I overpaid by quite a bit, they had put my account on "Pre-paid Status" and therefore were stopping my automatic withdrawals until something ridiculous, like April.

APRIL! No wonder people in this country can't get out of debt. I don't know anyone who would "pre-pay" their loans when they have extra money - instead, you're trying to pay it off quicker. But a less-savvy person than me might think - oh hey, great, that's an extra couple hundred bucks now I can use every month since they're giving me a break, maybe I'll take advantage of that. And then meanwhile interest accumulates like mad on your account until April.

Ridiculous. I called. So they're starting me back on my auto payments next month - I could have opted for this month, but since I double-paid my October amount accidentally (you know, that whole making an auto-withdrawal after I'd already accounted for my monthly payment in my overpayment amount) I decided to take my November payment and put it back in my new "down payment" fund where it should have stayed.

Here's another thing while I'm at it. The reason I chose this bank for my loans was because they advertised a cut in your interest rate if you use their auto-payment feature for a year. I have been using it, but I haven't heard anything about my interest rate going down. I'm going to have to follow up on that...

Ridic. I hate this bank.