The "This Might Be A Stupid Question, But...." Thread

[turtleIScream]

What might cause our billing information for automatic payments to revert to old accounts? Several months ago, our credit card was compromised. We had to cancel that card, get a new one issued, and remember to change all of our automatic billings that were associated with the old card. We have a lot of auto pays set up, so it took about a month to verify all affected accounts had been updated. In the last month, however, two of our accounts (cell phone and natural gas) have reported billing problems, due to invalid payment option selected. Both of these accounts, which have been billed properly since the CC change show our only billing info as the old card. How does that happen?

[mmswm]

I would assume a problem with the company doing the billing.

Typically when an ACH payment is set up, the computers set for billing on the business day before the day they're set to pull the payment.  So, if your payment is set to pull on a Tuesday, then everything is set to  pull by business cut-off on Monday.  If the payment is set to pull on Monday, however, everything is set to go by business cut-off Friday, since Sat. and Sunday are non-business days.  If a payment is made before that cut-off, then the system recognizes that the bill has been paid and doesn't pull a payment.

So, lets say that these two companies had traditional ACH payments set up.  When you called to update the information, they did not de-link the old ACH, just set up another type of electronic payment.  For the first couple of payments, the new payment works just fine because it's pulled before that cut-off, or they set up a one time transfer and it pulled early enough to stop the ACH.  Then one cycle the second payment type is either set to pull too late, or was a one time transfer, so the ACH tries to pull.  Of course the payment can't be completed because the old information is no longer valid.  In my time with MajorBank, I've seen customers go years with an alternative payment type pulling just fine, and then suddenly the ACH, that's been there the entire time, tries to pull.

(And if that was way too confusing, please let me know, because I'm typing and playing kid referee at the same time and probably didn't do a great job of explaining).

[Mental Magpie]

How do I cut down on the amount of dust in my house? It seems like I'm dusting every two days and that there's an inch of dust every time. Are there any little tricks I can use?

[Outdoor Girl]

If you have a forced air furnace, make sure you have a filter in it and change it regularly.  That helps a lot.

Shaving the dogs might help, too.   

[Mental Magpie]

If you have a forced air furnace, make sure you have a filter in it and change it regularly.  That helps a lot.

Shaving the dogs might help, too.   

LOL! I know they're the source of it, but they're the kind you're not supposed to shave. It doesn't help that we don't currently have anything that would pass as grass.

[Outdoor Girl]

I was just kidding about the dogs.     But if you don't have a forced air furnace, I don't really have any other ideas.

[ladyknight1]

Do you know how old the window seals or door seals are? The weatherstripping degrades over time, and dust gets in that way.

[Dazi]

Do you know how old the window seals or door seals are? The weatherstripping degrades over time, and dust gets in that way.

Have you ever had your airducts cleaned?

[ladyknight1]

My parents had to replace their windows after 40 years. It made a huge difference in their cooling and heating costs and the dust in their home.

[kherbert05]

Is it normal to wake up quite disoriented in the morning?

Some days I wake up and have no idea what day it is. I have to think about it for a few seconds.

Yesterday--Sunday--I woke up to DH's alarm going off and began getting everyone up and ready as though it were Monday. I was picking out what shoes DS should wear that day before my brain said "Wait a minute, are we really sure it's Monday?" DH's alarm doesn't normally go off on Sundays, so I guess the alarm gave my brain the Monday cue.

Occasionally I will wake up in the night and think it's morning and time to get up. Again, I feel uncomfortably disoriented when this happens.

I've had this problem. I think it is because I wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle. I use http://sleepyti.me/ to help fix it.


You can put in the time you want to wake up and it figures out the best times for you to fall asleep. Our you can put in the current time and it will figure the best time for you to wake up (assuming you go to sleep with 15 minutes of the time you put in.


I once woke up, got dressed, drove to a sub job, no one was there so I waited in the car - till a cop wanted to know what I was doing in the parking lot of a rural school at 3:30 am. Thankfully he believed me and let me go home.

[Mental Magpie]

This house was built in 1905...there is still a coal furnace in the basement with a chute full of coal in front of it.  Honestly, I doubt any of the windows have been replaced in the last 30 years by the looks of them.  Some of the doors still have skeleton keys and the only rooms with overhead lights are the bathroom, kitchen, and pantry/back porch/back door area.  I will have to check the furnace, though, as I don't think there were dogs in the house before we were here thus it may have not been changed in a good while.  Seriously, though, I'm pretty sure my dogs bring in most of it despite the fact that humans usually account for most of dust.  I doubt the scientist had 2 long haired Akitas in the house when they tested the dust for human skin cells.

[ladyknight1]

My boss had to remodel her house because she was cleaning up a small dog sized clump of hair from their five dogs every day. Her glossy white tile had to go, as the hair would attract to it. She now has lovely wood-colored tile, that only requires sweeping once a day.

I bought a pet hair handheld vacuum to use, especially around our two birds. Little downy feathers get in everything.

[CakeBeret]

How on earth do you read and understand the various electric company offerings?

We are moving to Houston, where you can choose between different electric companies. I am so overwhelmed with trying to figure it all out! We currently live in an area where there is only 1 option for electricity, so I have never even needed to think about these things.

For example, they give different rates for 500 kWh, 1000 kWh, and 2000 kWh. Does that mean that your rate will vary and be billed by the amount of electricity you use? Is there some sort of average that I might expect to use? What is renewable content, and should we look for a provider that has a higher percentage of it? What is a "TDSP pass-through charge"? Should you go with the provider with the lowest prices, or are there other factors to consider?

[blue2000]

How on earth do you read and understand the various electric company offerings?

We are moving to Houston, where you can choose between different electric companies. I am so overwhelmed with trying to figure it all out! We currently live in an area where there is only 1 option for electricity, so I have never even needed to think about these things.

For example, they give different rates for 500 kWh, 1000 kWh, and 2000 kWh. Does that mean that your rate will vary and be billed by the amount of electricity you use? Is there some sort of average that I might expect to use? What is renewable content, and should we look for a provider that has a higher percentage of it? What is a "TDSP pass-through charge"? Should you go with the provider with the lowest prices, or are there other factors to consider?

I'm not entirely sure about most of that, but I know my EC has different rates for 500 kWh and 1000 kWh. When I hit 1000 kWh, they charge a higher rate. Your current bill should say how much power you have used in that month. If you use just over 1000 kWh, consider a provider who has the best rate for that. If you are moving to a much larger/smaller house or expecting lower heating bills, look for rates that are closer to what you expect in the new place.

[VorFemme]

How on earth do you read and understand the various electric company offerings?

We are moving to Houston, where you can choose between different electric companies. I am so overwhelmed with trying to figure it all out! We currently live in an area where there is only 1 option for electricity, so I have never even needed to think about these things.

For example, they give different rates for 500 kWh, 1000 kWh, and 2000 kWh. Does that mean that your rate will vary and be billed by the amount of electricity you use? Is there some sort of average that I might expect to use? What is renewable content, and should we look for a provider that has a higher percentage of it? What is a "TDSP pass-through charge"? Should you go with the provider with the lowest prices, or are there other factors to consider?

I'm not entirely sure about most of that, but I know my EC has different rates for 500 kWh and 1000 kWh. When I hit 1000 kWh, they charge a higher rate. Your current bill should say how much power you have used in that month. If you use just over 1000 kWh, consider a provider who has the best rate for that. If you are moving to a much larger/smaller house or expecting lower heating bills, look for rates that are closer to what you expect in the new place.

Also remember that your heating bills may very well be lower.....but your summer cooling bills could be a LOT higher (I live just southwest of Houston).