...I got sent to collections

Hello, my name is Annie, I like stuff. I will be the first to admit that I am quite capable of being a financial failure. Get what I want, consequences be damned. This is my daily struggle. And I am proud to admit that for years I have done well. Buy something, use cash. Get a bill, like for electricity or doctor's visits, what not...I pay it. Right then and there.

Our electricity provider just sent us to collections. For a bill that was due on Wednesday, and marked paid by my bank on Tuesday, which for those of you who went to public school, WAS THE DAY BEFORE IT WAS EVEN DUE. I am personally offended. It was sent to collections on THE DAY IT WAS DUE. I'm sure they had to process that well before the end of business. I pay this bill electronically, but even if I didn't, give me a day for mail this busy holiday season. Were this not all bad enough, I only had 13 days from the time the bill was printed and mailed to me to pay it in the first place. Maybe it was late in coming to me. Like I said, I pay this particular bill electronically, so having gotten a bill or not, my bank would have sent them $300, just in case.

Cynical old me is wondering if this is some evil corporate trick to void my "contract" which they can alter at any point with cause, yet should I move to Timbuktu where they have no electricity I have to pay a cancellation fee. I'm wondering if this is the cause they are looking for.

Were it old me, I would figure they were justified in doing so. I would have figured that I probably overlooked it or ignored it, and it wouldn't have bothered me. But this is new me, and new me is on top of things financially. And this is the reason that I don't do credit. I'm sure that a $250 power bill is going to drop the ol' FICO down a bunch, which is fine, I'd prefer that thing to say 0 - you don't exist financially. Unlike Suze Orman, my valuation does not lie in my FICO score.

This is why we will always pay cash. For everything, forever. This may mean we don't move for a looooong time, this may also mean that we'll be even more careful with our money, knowing there is no card to save us. Which is ok, because we are already saved.