I think February 2024 will go down as one of the worst months I have had in a really long time. So bad in fact that I started seeing a therapist again and that says a lot because I am a very strong person.
Included in our sh*tty month of February was the stress of wrapping up our Hyundai Sante Fe vehicle lease, which we turned into the dealership on December 12th. Yes, you read that right, December 12th. So why then, are we still talking about a lease in February that was done in December?
After surrendering the Sante Fe in December we received a letter (registered letter) from Hyundai stating that because we did not go for another lease with them (I went back to leasing a Subaru because I hated the Hyundai) we were being charged $400 and 3 out of the 4 tires were so balled that they were charging us $160 each for them and there was curb rash on one of the rims/hubcaps so more money for that. On top of that, we got another letter a few weeks after that initial letter that said we had gone over our mileage by 9000 miles. Wait a minute, what? I distinctly read in our lease (or at least I thought I read it) that we had 15,000 miles per year, and they were saying we had 12,000 miles per year. So I went to look for our original lease paperwork and guess what…COULDN’T FIND IT ANYWHERE. I was frantic at this point. I called my husband and he said he remembered seeing 15,000 miles too but had no idea what happened to the lease paperwork after he cleaned out the car to turn it in. So, without being able to look at the lease to see where our mistake was, there wasn’t much we could do. They emailed an original copy of it to us, and it clearly stated 12,000 miles per year.
Hyundai sent us a final bill after a full inspection of the vehicle and it was determined that we owed over $3000! What the heck, we didn’t have $3000 just sitting around. And get this, they wouldn’t take a credit card to pay that bill. And we had less than a month to come up with that money. I had just paid our property taxes and had zero extra money of that magnitude left to pay this bill.
For a couple of weeks, I just let it simmer. I thought maybe I could raise the money by selling extra online or baking more, but then my mother-in-law died, we had the funeral, the thrift sale at the church, I was in the middle of tax season at the town hall and my nerves were just shot.
So, how did I manage to pay that astronomical amount without a loan? Although I did use my credit card to pay this bill, I did not take a cash advance on it.
Let’s go back to my meltdown point. After I got multiple phone calls asking for that money, I called my credit card company and said I wanted convenience checks from them to pay this bill. The woman on the phone was super nice and said there was a better way I could pay Hyundai. She said a cash advance would be really high interest, which I knew, but I didn’t think I had a choice. She said to do a balance transfer instead. “I can do that?” I asked her. She said yes and walked me through the entire process while I was on the phone with her.
Getting that transfer completed wasn’t as easy as she said it would be though. First, that transfer request caused a fraud alert on my account and they called me believe it or not during my mother-in-law’s funeral, (which I did not answer of course) Second, because of the fraud alert they denied the transfer request. I had to redo the whole thing, and then they said it would take 17 days to get to Hyundai. I was fuming by then and completely beside myself.
As of today, March 6th, I finally got the confirmation that Hyundai had received our full payment. What a nightmare. Don’t even get me started about the DMV and the whole plate surrender thing, either. That’s a whole other blog post.
The only good part about all of this is that the $3000 is interest-free for 12 months. That is a relief!
So, once again more money had to be put back on the credit card. This again is my frustration. And what’s more frustrating is that no matter how much I try to pay a credit card down or off there is always something that happens that puts it right back on. I just don’t know how other people do it.
In February, I made a $783 payment to this credit card, but with the $3,140.79 put on the account this month, our total is now back up to $11,841.51. This will set my goal back by three or four months.
Goal for March: we win the lottery, lol.
Until next time -MM
P.S. no more car leases for this family. I am buying out my Subaru when the lease ends.
The Professional Domestic 