I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[Judique]

.

Well, some of us are stuck at home with no one to talk to so here we are.

this is how I feel


Some hospitals no longer do these things. No baby nursery, no nurses feeding your baby. Baby is in the room and fed by mom or dad exclusively. Some also do no samples or coupons. YMMV.

It's been 3 years and 2 months since my last grandchild and things change quickly, so I'm probably out of date already. AAMC had all the supplies, including diapers, plus other little extras for the mothers. I will have to ask our friend who still works there what they are doing now.

 

[Artygal90]

I’m working tech support at church for our first-ever streaming service. The joys of being married to the office manager

 

[orangecuse]

PSA- blood donors are needed if you can donate. Donation centers cannot run drives right now and they are short many places. Call a local place and see what safety measures they are taking for COVID19 and donate if you can and feel safe doing so!

 

[hlhlaw07]

I didn't know that- good to know! Yeah, I make sure to specifically request no deferment or forbearance when submitting my income for qualification every year. They did defer my loans one time, but there was some other issue with qualifying my income that they were having trouble with.

I have always told them not to place any deferments or forbearance on my account, and yet somehow they ended up on there a couple of times and been held against me on the qualifying payment front.

I also had a years worth of qualifying payments that were calculated to be $0 because my taxable income was $0 as a result of a combat zone deployment retroactively recalculated and told my payment wasn’t actually $0 and I just didn’t pay my loan for a year. Makes no sense as my account has been set up on auto debit since I consolidated my loans into the direct loan program in 2008 for the interest rate discount. So if there was an actual payment due, it would have been auto debited. They also never reported anything to my credit report or placed the loan in default or collection. You would think all of those facts would lead FedLoan and DoE to understand that I didn’t just take a year off from making payments, but common sense does not reign supreme with either entity. (Thankfully I haven’t had any issue with the other year my payments were calculated at $0 for another combat zone deployment and all twelve of those $0 payments counted).

I gave up trying to fight it and just resigned myself to making an extra year worth of payments. My forgiveness eligibility is currently estimated for September of this year. My loans should have been forgiven in December 2018. Because of loan services incompetence and DoE stupidity, I’m looking at September 2020. I cannot complain too much as some people have been told that all 10 years don’t count. Less than 1% of those who have applied for forgiveness have actually been found to be eligible. So, I’m pretty much expecting to be screwed over more.

 

[punkin]

If you use a support link from P2, the application comes up for the CIP with the 80k $5k spend. If you don’t have a P2 you can use a link in our private reddit group

I didn't realize that worked. I thought once the public link is out...that's it.

 

[elgerber]

I forgot to post. After I cancelled my April trip (insert tears LOL), it took me all of 8 hours of stalking the DVC website to get a room for dd and I for July for all nights in one resort. Started out with two bookended reservations, missing a day in the middle, but by 9pm had all my nights on the same reservation. Now to keep stalking to see if a better resort pops up.

 

[calypso726]

The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson is really good, highly recommended. I too like how he finished up Wheel of Time. I haven’t tried his other stuff yet because they all seem like the start to a new series. After being burned by waiting for Martin and Rothfuss to finish theirs, I tend to wait until series are complete before starting. Happy reading!

Thanks! Mistborn is next on my TBR list. I understand Elantris is a stand alone.

I've also given up on GRRM finishing the blasted series. Have you read The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie? The first book is The Blade Itself. Loved the trilogy!

 

[DisneyMandC]

I have always told them not to place any deferments or forbearance on my account, and yet somehow they ended up on there a couple of times and been held against me on the qualifying payment front.

I also had a years worth of qualifying payments that were calculated to be $0 because my taxable income was $0 as a result of a combat zone deployment retroactively recalculated and told my payment wasn’t actually $0 and I just didn’t pay my loan for a year. Makes no sense as my account has been set up on auto debit since I consolidated my loans into the direct loan program in 2008 for the interest rate discount. So if there was an actual payment due, it would have been auto debited. They also never reported anything to my credit report or placed the loan in default or collection. You would think all of those facts would lead FedLoan and DoE to understand that I didn’t just take a year off from making payments, but common sense does not reign supreme with either entity. (Thankfully I haven’t had any issue with the other year my payments were calculated at $0 for another combat zone deployment and all twelve of those $0 payments counted).

I gave up trying to fight it and just resigned myself to making an extra year worth of payments. My forgiveness eligibility is currently estimated for September of this year. My loans should have been forgiven in December 2018. Because of loan services incompetence and DoE stupidity, I’m looking at September 2020. I cannot complain too much as some people have been told that all 10 years don’t count. Less than 1% of those who have applied for forgiveness have actually been found to be eligible. So, I’m pretty much expecting to be screwed over more.

I would love to hear back from you this year if they get forgiven! I'm halfway through. I've only worked for the government though so I'm hopeful for my forgiveness.

 

[Hoosier John]

... They also never reported anything to my credit report or placed the loan in default or collection. You would think all of those facts would lead FedLoan and DoE to understand that I didn’t just take a year off from making payments, but common sense does not reign supreme with either entity...

I wanted to "like" your post with the "laughter" emoji, but wanted to make sure you knew I wasn't laughing at your situation.

Guess I should look into the PSLF program. I will have 10 years in January 2022, although there won't be a lot still owed at that point. Think I got lucky that all of my loans are "Direct"-somethings, and have never been consolidated.

 

[Haley R]

Keep in mind those small liquid bottles are for one meal. So they won't go far.

I think it would be a good idea to have a can of powder on hand as not all mothers produce enough milk, although I'd say that's rare. Could also be handy for travel or when husband is in charge, too. They do expire though, so I wouldn't get too much.

And, as I learned when I bought the wrong "flavor", you MUST have a receipt for returns. Apparent WIC (or similar) parents bought formula, and then returned it for cash. Luckily, I generally keep my receipts.

Is there a kind you would suggest? And what size can? On amazon it’s a lot of multi packs which are super expensive

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Is there a kind you would suggest? And what size can? On amazon it’s a lot of multi packs which are super expensive

I work in the newborn nursery and we use Similac advance 20 calorie for healthy newborns and Similac for supplementation for breastfeeding moms who supplement.
Enfamil makes comparable products.

 

[hlhlaw07]

I would love to hear back from you this year if they get forgiven! I'm halfway through. I've only worked for the government though so I'm hopeful for my forgiveness.

I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ve only worked for the federal government (US Army) as well. Thankfully, they’ve never given me a problem about the employment part as being a Soldier is one of those innate public service jobs, but I wouldn’t put it past them at this point. Are you sending in your employment certifications forms annually (not the income certification)? I didn’t do the employment certification annually because you don’t have to and I have had the same employer and will have the same employer until after forgiveness. When you submit the employment certification form is when they calculate or update your qualifying payments. I submitted my first one in 2017 expecting to have less than a year left. They came back and told me I only had 12 qualifying payments.

Thankfully, being a government attorney I had a point of contact for an attorney in the DoE and he helped me get an expedited review of the file and after that my qualifying payments went from 12 to 102 (still short). Unfortunately, his ability to help me ended when he realized they had screwed up my file and weren’t going to credit with me with a year’s worth of payments. It became a conflict of interest for him since he represented the people who were screwing me over.

My recommendation, if you aren’t already doing so, submit employment certifications early and often. That way you can know whether that light at the end of the tunnel is actually a train

 

[Haley R]

And I didn't mean to sound like I was ragging on Twilight lol, I have all of those books and have read them many times. Just meant they weren't too much of the same storylines... like they weren't copied.

Here's some I like:
Jaymin Eve - I like lots of hers, including The Walker Saga
Supernatural Prison Stories
NYC Mecca Series
Hive Trilogy
Storm Princess Saga
Secret Keepers
She has some others that are on my list to read too. I've also read Curse of the Gods and enjoyed, but its also a reverse harem story sooooo.... lol. I swear I enjoyed it for more than that

Leia Stone (a lot of times these authors will team up on a series and then I'll just keep expanding into the other author's catalogue)
Matefinder Series
Fallen Academy

Shannon Mayer
Rylee Adamson Series
Venom Trilogy
Elemental Series

Heather Hildenbrand
Heart Lines Series

McKenzie Hunter
Sky Brooks Series
Legacy Series

Bella Forrest (dystopian)
The Gender Game Series
The Girl Who Dared Series, comes after Gender Game

Becky Monson (chick lit)
Thirty Two Going on Spinster series
Others

RS Grey chick lit/rom coms

Tate James - Kit Davenport series

Tara Myers - Secrets of Sanctuary mysteries

Thank you!

 

[hlhlaw07]

I wanted to "like" your post with the "laughter" emoji, but wanted to make sure you knew I wasn't laughing at your situation.

Guess I should look into the PSLF program. I will have 10 years in January 2022, although there won't be a lot still owed at that point. Think I got lucky that all of my loans are "Direct"-somethings, and have never been consolidated.

If you haven’t been in the program (an income driven repayment plan and certifying your income every year) then there isn’t much reason for you to look into it now. You have to make 120 payments (10 years) while being in the program, doing all things required of the program, and have a qualifying public service job for each payment you made. If you have been in an IDR repayment plan with your Direct loans this whole time, then definitely look into it. Otherwise you would be starting at the beginning of the 10 year clock and without a big balance on your loans, you would probably pay them off before forgiveness 10 years later.

 

[Haley R]

I work in the newborn nursery and we use Similac advance 20 calorie for healthy newborns and Similac for supplementation for breastfeeding moms who supplement.
Enfamil makes comparable products.

I was planning to use amazon so I don’t have to go into the store. Similac is only showing with like 3 cans and it’s over $100. Enfamil has one 20 oz can for $27.98. Does that sound right?

 

[DisneyMandC]

I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ve only worked for the federal government (US Army) as well. Thankfully, they’ve never given me a problem about the employment part as being a Soldier is one of those innate public service jobs, but I wouldn’t put it past them at this point. Are you sending in your employment certifications forms annually (not the income certification)? I didn’t do the employment certification annually because you don’t have to and I have had the same employer and will have the same employer until after forgiveness. When you submit the employment certification form is when they calculate or update your qualifying payments. I submitted my first one in 2017 expecting to have less than a year left. They came back and told me I only had 12 qualifying payments.

Thankfully, being a government attorney I had a point of contact for an attorney in the DoE and he helped me get an expedited review of the file and after that my qualifying payments went from 12 to 102 (still short). Unfortunately, his ability to help me ended when he realized they had screwed up my file and weren’t going to credit with me with a year’s worth of payments. It became a conflict of interest for him since he represented the people who were screwing me over.

My recommendation, if you aren’t already doing so, submit employment certifications early and often. That way you can know whether that light at the end of the tunnel is actually a train

Yup, I submit annually at the same time I do my income certification. So I sent this year's in in January and was at 57 payments then. Fed Loan has actually been pretty decent for me to work with. The only time I ran into an issue was certifying when I started my current job almost four years ago. I worked for the county government the first year out of law school, then worked for the state the second year, then went back to the county the third year and have been here ever since. Fed Loan could not understand that I somehow held two different jobs at two different times for the same county I had to have HR write a letter explaining, but once they processed that all my months have been correct.

 

[Hoosier John]

Is there a kind you would suggest? And what size can? On amazon it’s a lot of multi packs which are super expensive

It's been over a decade since I dealt with baby formula, so I'm outta touch. The new thing back then was a three-letter acronym which promoted brain development. I think the mistake I made was not getting one that was easier on stomachs?

I think breastfeeding is healthier and more rewarding, so I would just recommend getting a name-brand powder in case of emergency (mainly because of the potential for empty shelves). Just saw a lady on local news who apologized for taking all of the formula Target had today, because she has twin babies at home.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Updated my UA app and tried to cancel my flight in May that was changed to a one stop from nonstop that UA is refusing to refund me on. LOL. It listed my tax refund and said my 12.5k miles would be redeposited. No mention of a fee. It successfully cancelled my flight. And then was unable to process my refund and told me to call. Just got an email confirming unable to refund but we did cancel it, please call I’ll call later today.

According to FT a lot of people are filing DOT complaints against UA for these cancelled flights with only vouchers no refunds being offered situation. No one has hear back yet.

ETA: I screenshot each step. Just in case it might help me down the road.

 

[Hoosier John]

If you haven’t been in the program (an income driven repayment plan and certifying your income every year) then there isn’t much reason for you to look into it now. You have to make 120 payments (10 years) while being in the program, doing all things required of the program, and have a qualifying public service job for each payment you made. If you have been in an IDR repayment plan with your Direct loans this whole time, then definitely look into it. Otherwise you would be starting at the beginning of the 10 year clock and without a big balance on your loans, you would probably pay them off before forgiveness 10 years later.

Thanks. I'll look into it, as I think I will qualify, having at least half on an income-driven plan, and over 8 years now with same Fed Employer. Something is better than nothing (even if the benefit is taxable).

 

[wannabee]

We met DH Amex spend with payment for a Royal Carribean cruise for early May. Since the chances of this cruise happening are pretty low, what happens if I get a refund for the cruise? Will Amex take back the points? His 3 month period to earn is still open. Do I need to make sure we charge enough to cover if we get a refund?