Season 3, Episode 7

In this special Halloween episode of Financing Ambition, members recount their most fiscally frightening moments – from mortgage nightmares and haunted credit scores to ATM machines that feast on debit cards in foreign lands. Hosted by Eric Sutton, with stories contributed by Laurel Road member advocates and team members.

Transcript

Eric Sutton [00:00:11] Hi, everyone. This is Eric and you’re listening to Financing Ambition, a Laurel Road Podcast…Welcome to our special spooky Halloween episode of Financing Ambition: Tales from the Financial Crypt.

Today, we’ll be hearing stories shared by our Laurel Road member advocates and team members that will shiver your wallet’s spine – from mortgage nightmares and haunted credit scores to ATM machines in foreign lands that feast on debit cards. First up, we have two tales about the joys – or should I say horrors? – of home ownership. Our own Blair Morgan Reeves has a cursed tale to tell.

Blair Morgan Reeves [00:01:04] My financial scary story takes place about a year ago when my partner Kyle and I were looking at buying a condo. Picture this. You’re approaching the end of your lease in about two months and are trying to decide if you and your partner are going to continue renting or dive headfirst into homeownership by buying your first place in Brooklyn, New York. Well, that was me and my partner Kyle about a year and a half ago. So, we have a tight timeline, and no money saved up. But we decided that we wanted to take this leap and own a home. We were so sick of the renting game. Of course, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Literally, my very own loan officer said that many times throughout our homebuying journey. By the way, it was not just me thinking that this was a terrible process because we didn’t have any extra cash. We were trying to qualify for an assistance program. This is where most of our problems stemmed from, but we were planning on using that money for closing costs. So, it was a down payment assistance program, but you could use that money for whatever you wanted because again, I cannot stress enough we had no money, so we desperately needed a program like this. And because we were first time homebuyers, we wanted to jump on that opportunity. But every single time we sent over a document, they said, Sorry, there’s an issue, there’s a conflict. And this went on for weeks and eventually months of back and forth.

So, fast forward a few months. We’ve been, like I said, going back and forth with our loan officer for what seems like an eternity at this point. We’re now two days away from our closing two days. So, to add to that stressful scenario, our closing was two days away from that when we were supposed to move out of our current apartment. So, here’s the timeline, right? We’re two days away from closing. We have to move two days after that. So, it’s all happening within one week. So, talk about stressful. I literally had movers booked and ready to go, so this had to work out. Otherwise, we were thinking we were going to be homeless. It’s two days before closing, like I said, and we get a call from our loan officer that we didn’t qualify for this assistance program, the same program we were counting on to help us pay for these closing costs that we needed in two days. So, panic has set in. And at this point, because, you know, again, how on earth are we going to gather this money that we needed for these closing costs in two days? At this point, we’re panicking. And the loan officer says that the amount that we needed to show up with at closing was $20,000. So, we scrambled and started pulling money from places that you should never pull money from ever in your entire life. But we were withdrawing from our four one case emergency funds asking help from family and friends. We were truly scraping every single dime that we could possibly find. Think pennies under couch cushions, that type of scenario. I was honestly scared that we weren’t going to have a place to live. I was stressed that we weren’t going to move before our lease was up and be ready for when the movers arrived. I was angry at myself for putting us in this situation and rushing into the home buying process without being fully prepared. And most of all, I was frustrated with my loan officer for leading us down this wrong path for such a long time. In the end, we got the money somehow. Don’t ask me how. It was a miracle, truly. We closed and we moved and are now in our new condo.

So, a little word to the wise. You think you have enough money saved up, but I bet you don’t. I would go ahead and double what you think you need. Because when your loan officer says you’ll need 15,000 in a few days, they might say you actually need 18 and eventually you’ll need 20, because that’s exactly what happened to us. And we were completely shocked. So, buyer beware of the hidden, spooky costs that can come up when you’re buying a home.

Eric Sutton [00:05:03] Yes, indeed. Blair and her partner found out that the journey to homeownership can be bumpier than a haunted hayride. But even when you escape purgatory and get into your dream home, maintaining it can be full of frightful financial surprises, too. Dr. Jeffrey Jacobson found that out when he went to make updates on his cabin in Utah.

Dr. Jeffrey Jacobson [00:05:26] On a very scary night in 2020, during COVID, another financial institution was taking over a small loan. We had on some solar panels on the roof of our mortgage free home. The villain offered to increase the size of our loan as a home equity loan if we wanted to. In fact, we were in the process of starting a renovation on a family cabin in Utah, and we’re just starting to look at options to get this cash. This sounded like a simple, great opportunity without any other fees since they were taking over an existing loan. After months of multiple emails to provide all the needed information and signatures, the final loan papers were ready to sign just in time for our contractor to get the project started. As you read through the loan documents, we got a great big boo when we saw that we were being charged a 1% loan origination fee that was never disclosed to us. I protested to the villain whose response was, it is just standard for loans like this. Not wanting to delay the project, we went ahead with it. A little more than a year later, my wife and I attended the American Dental Association convention meeting and stopped by the Laurel Road booth. And we became acquainted with all the financial services they offered to dentists. I was very impressed with everyone there.

About six months later, we needed more cash to finish the cabin remodel project in Utah. We went directly to Laurel Road to pursue the additional home equity loan. They were great to work with. Totally transparent about all fees. They locked us into a great interest rate at the beginning of the process. And under that rate, even though because of inflation, it had doubled by the time the final paperwork was completed and signed. Thank you so much. Happy Halloween.

Eric Sutton [00:07:44] Happy Halloween, indeed. Homeownership can be a little house of horrors now and then. But fortunately, these tales ended on a positive note. And so does our next one, which is a tale of skulls and bones in a way. It involves a major mishap with an expensive X-ray machine, right as Dr. Kasra Hedayat was about to open his new dental practice.

Dr. Kasra Hedayat [00:08:12] My scary financial story is one all too recent. Earlier this year, I purchased my own dental practice from a wonderful retiring doctor. And I’ve been learning all too well the triumphs and sorrows of running your own business on top of being a health care provider. I recently made a significant investment into upgrading my 2D Pano X-ray machine into a 3D Cone Beam machine prior to the installation of the c. V c. T. A technician was sent out to survey the area and inform me of any additions that would be needed. This report resulted in the need for a new Ethernet port to be installed. A relatively straightforward and uneventful job to do. Or so I thought. Like many of you, we are busy treating patients and don’t have every minute of the day available to do everything yourself, so you delegate. I, of course, delegated this task to an IT company. The location of the desired ethernet port was shown and the technician got to work. A little while later, I was informed the job was done, and when I went back to review it, my heart immediately sank. The technician had completely cut the existing wires that ran to the current panoramic machine in order to pull a new wire through the ceiling to create a new port. I now had a several hundred pound paperweight staring me in the face. The technician was somehow under the impression that the unit was broken and thought he’d be helping me by managing the existing cables. Unfortunately for me, I had almost one month before my new cone beam machine would be installed. What was I to do? The extra unit was destroyed now and of course I was angry, stressed, worried and a multitude of other adjectives that I could add. But I’ll save that for another recording. The best thing I could think to do at the time was to just step back and take a breather and hopefully try and rationalize. I wanted to handle this situation because at the end of the day, I still had patients to see and there was no turning back. The technician was, of course, very apologetic and embarrassed. And frankly, I empathized with the man as we’ve all done things that we wish we could immediately undo, and I’ve definitely been there.

So, in the end, everything actually worked out as I had a wonderful colleague nearby who allowed me to send my patients over for X-rays, and the CBC was thankfully installed sooner than expected. And I think the technician had a lot to do with expediting that. So, hope you guys have a good October and happy Halloween.

Eric Sutton [00:10:47] Definitely a scary thing to happen to a dentist and terrible timing. But glad it all worked out in the end for Doctor Hedayat. While private practice doctors know all too well that medical equipment maintenance can be financially frightening, patients know that medical bills can bring some very shocking financial moments. Our own Melissa DeJesus experienced that firsthand. And jokes aside, this one is a truly terrifying story.

Melissa DeJesus [00:11:17] It was a dark and stormy night. Well, not really. It was a sunny day in August 2006 that led to one of the scariest financial times of my adult life. My scary financial story began when I had a fairly routine but also major knee reconstruction surgery. Now, thankfully, my surgeon was not Dr. Frankenstein, and the procedure went very well. But during my recovery, I developed a painful and nearly fatal pulmonary embolism in my right lung. I was hospitalized for five days. That’s five days of stress scans, needles and fear of the unknown. With the help of the amazing medical team, I was released to live my life happily. That is until I received my hospital bill about 60 days later. I had really good insurance and I expected to get a bill, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be almost ten times what I was anticipating nearly $10,000. Instead of recovering, I was left to figure out how a 24-year-old with an entry level job was supposed to pay this thing off. I was already filled with anxiety, adjusting my life to account for daily blood thinners, weekly blood draws and other doctor’s appointments. All which cost additional money, further draining my already dwindling bank account. I received an itemized bill from the hospital, and after combing through it, I accepted my fate. I set up a monthly payment plan to start paying it off after paying just the minimum amount each month for a year. I stopped receiving my monthly statements. I called the hospital’s financial office, and they said it looked like it had been paid off. So, I celebrated because I finally felt hope. But that information was wrong, and my hope was premature and came to a screeching halt very soon after. About six months later, I received a collections notice from a company that I had never heard of before. It turns out the hospital had changed billing companies and in error. No notices had been sent. My bill was not settled. In fact, it was again growing due to the unpaid balance. And now it was hurting my credit. I called the company and requested a payment plan, which they refused. I requested to settle for a lesser amount. They refused that too. So, I was stuck with a large growing bill, low bank account, and now hurting credit. I finally spoke with a supervisor who agreed to settle for a slightly lesser amount. I took out a personal loan to cover the balance and start getting things back on track. It wasn’t the ideal end, but it taught me a few very important things. Savings. Having a savings account, especially one with a high annual percentage yield, is important to be prepared when life throws curveballs your way. Also learning how personal loans work. Interest rates. Origination fees. Early payoff fees. Learning the pitfalls and how these could potentially affect my finances, my credit, and therefore my future self. And finally, I learned about credit very quickly.

This experience taught me how important having a strong credit score is and a low credit to debt ratio. The importance of that and how far it goes. It was years before I was able to buy a new car on my own, stop relying on my parents. Stop working two jobs and to be able to apply for any new lines of credit. Overall, I learned to look out for my financial self. I hired a financial advisor. I got life insurance, and I started saving. If I could go back in time, I would stay closer to the situation. I would pay as much towards that bill each month as I could, and I would follow up on it regularly. I would have opened a savings account sooner and made a plan to set an amount away each week so that I could be better prepared. In the end, I paid it off. I struggled with bad credit for years, working as hard as possible to clean it up. Now I’m a homeowner with an 800 plus credit score, a savings account, and a better, more hopeful outlook on my own financial future.

Eric Sutton [00:15:15] Wow. A real nightmare. Am I right? We’re grateful to Melissa for sharing that one. Yes, large, unplanned expenses can haunt you and your credit score for what seems like an eternity. And you know what else can be financially haunting? Signing up for an insurance product that it turns out you don’t need. Up next, Dr. Michael Regan Anderson shares a sordid story that reminds us to beware of ghouls…even if they’re your friend’s cousin.

Dr. Michael Regan Anderson [00:15:48] I’m happy to share one of my financial scary stories. We’ll call this the insurance haunting. It was a bright, sunny afternoon and the world seemed full of hope and opportunity. I was just a few months away from starting dental school, working a relatively low paying job and trying to save every penny for that big leap into higher education. One weekend I was invited to a family barbecue by a friend. And you know how these things go. Good food, good company. And inevitably, some guy in a polo shirt trying to give you life advice. In walks this guy, a first cousin of a trusted friend. Well, come on, Cousin Matt. Cousin Matt was the picture of charm for smiles and that warm. I’m-looking-out-for-you energy. My close friend encouraged me to meet his cousin. Cousin Matt had somehow heard I was headed for dental school, and he was very eager to meet me. As the burgers were grilling, he casually slides into the conversation and drops. So, what’s your financial plan like? You’re saving for your future. He gently stroked his beard with his left hand, leaving us to notice an attractive gold watch. Now. I was about to head to dental school, but the only plan I had was to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars and trust that I’d find folks to help me navigate my financial future. Cousin Matt wanted to be on my team. He started talking about this insurance policy that would guarantee my financial success, protect my loved ones, and make me financially invincible. I mean, financially invincible. That sounded great, especially when my bank account felt at that time more like financially invisible. He went on to explain that this whole life insurance was an investment, not just an expense. And of course, being the responsible adult I was, which was code for young and clueless. I figured, hey, this guy seems like he knows what he’s talking about. He’s wearing a polo shirt, after all. That’s professional. I learned that cousin Matt had spoken with a bunch of our mutual friends. Cousin Matt assured me that all of my peers were signing up for the same guaranteed good deal. Fast forward a couple of months. I had signed up for this fancy life insurance policy and I was paying more for this investment than I was spending on groceries. My finances were not improving. If anything, I was eating more ramen. I started thinking, wait a second, how am I supposed to guarantee my financial success while I’m struggling to pay rent?

It was then that the pieces finally started to fall into place. I did some research and started committing myself to learning about personal finance on my own. Cousin Matt wasn’t a benevolent financial guru. He was a salesperson. I looked deeper into the policy and realized it wasn’t a magical financial safety net. It was more like an expensive hole I was digging myself into. Turns out Cousin Matt was trained to sell this overpriced insurance product because it made his company money. It made him a commission, not because it made sense for a broke pre dental me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clear that there are similar products available at different companies that might be appropriate for individuals with incomes orders of magnitude greater than mine were at that time. I had to face the facts. I had been swindled by Cousin Matt. I promptly surrendered the policy. And let me tell you, getting out of the policy was like escaping financial quicksand. Starting dental school the following year, I would have no income at all to be paying these fee heavy premiums. It did not make sense to borrow money at a moderately high interest rate to continue owning this policy. So, the lesson if someone at a barbecue starts talking to you about financial products before you’ve finished your burger, beware. Maybe focus on the pasta salad and never underestimate the power of a well-placed polo shirt or gold watch.

Now, whenever I think back on that time, I laugh. I was fooled by the family member with the magical financial solution, but it was a cheap and kind of cheap lesson that helped me to learn. Financial services can be a bit like haunted houses filled with some good advice, but also with traps that are waiting to profit off of your naivety. Keep your wits about you and always ask, who’s this actually helping? I do now work with a trusted financial team today. As a business owner, I have a team of financial professionals and accountants who take the workload off of me and keep me on track. But good financial advice is rarely free. It comes at a fair price, with true fiduciary responsibility and a story. Cousin Matt didn’t get the last laugh. I learned to be a little less trusting of overly friendly salespeople, and more importantly, I kept my future dollars where they belonged, in my own pocket and out of Cousin Matt. I looked him up. He’s currently selling cars.

Eric Sutton [00:20:19] A hard lesson learned by Dr. Anderson. But you’d be hard-pressed to find someone without any financial regrets from their young adult years. And speaking of youth, the next two tales from the financial crypt come from the college years, shared by two Laurel Road team members. First, we’ll hear from Shan Agish about an encounter with a debit card-eating ATM that left him cash-strapped all the way in Spain.

Shan Agish [00:20:48] My financial horror story starts off on a beautiful sunny day in Seville. I was in a tux on my way to sing at a gorgeous medieval church. Things were Tom Bueno. So good. I never thought that a financial crisis was about to terrorize me for the remainder of my Spanish trip. The course in college was the only group that was allowed to travel internationally. And every spring break, we would go on a tour performing in various venues across the country or region we were going to that year. This is all to say that I was a naive, cash poor college student with one checking account, one credit card, and a dwindling handful of euros in my pocket. My friend Carol and I went to an ATM to get some cash. I’m a gentleman, so ladies first. Carol’s transaction went off without a hitch. I then inserted my debit card into the ATM, and that was the last anyone ever saw that the ATM ate my card and left me without a way to obtain cash for my checking account. Panic ensued. Despite having traveled a fair amount with my family as a child, we’d never encountered this situation before. So, I was at a loss as to what to do further. This was when cash was still largely preferred, and many places were cash only. So, I was really in hot water. Ultimately, the solution was to have my parents wire me money. This was also before phones had WiFi capabilities and I was not in a position to spring for international service or roaming charges. So, liaising with my folks back in the States and finding the right branch was a horror story in and of itself, and the denouement of this scary tale…or so I thought.

The specter of my long-lost debit card wasn’t done with me yet. I still had my credit card, so I relied on that when possible, during the trip. Convenient? Sure. But when I got back home and checked my account. The fees, the fees, the foreign transaction fees. Nowadays I have two checking accounts the Laurel Road loyalty checking account as my primary and a secondary with a little set aside for emergency situations like this. I also have more credit cards now, so when I travel abroad, I make sure to note which of them have no foreign transaction fees.

Eric Sutton [00:23:48] Ouch. Beware of those foreign transaction fees. They can be vampires, as Shan found out the hard way. Well, we’re almost to the end of our special Halloween episode of Financing Ambition. To close out these tales from the financial crypt, we’ll hear from our own Greg Fullum about an eerie error made by a bank he formerly used.

Greg Fullum [00:24:11] It all begins when I was just a broke college kid. I spent my days in class, my nights delivering pizzas, scraping by paycheck to paycheck, but enjoying it all. One day, it was a Friday between classes, I went to the campus coffee shop. I was hungry, so I grabbed a sandwich. But when I went to go pay, my card was declined. Confused? I asked the cashier to run it again, only to be met with another denied. I left my rap behind, returned to my dorm room for yet another cup of instant ramen. This wasn’t the first time I dealt with an overdrawn account, but when I logged into my online banking that day, what I saw chilled me to the bone. My accounts overdrawn by nearly $8,000. My face went pale as a ghost’s. I called my bank immediately. Dread tightening around my chest. A polite, almost eerily calm voice answered, explaining that a check for $8,000 had been posted to my account. I let them know that I hadn’t written that check. So, you know, was this fraud or was this something else going on? Turns out a clerical mistake. It happened where a legitimate check written by another member at the bank had been posted to my account. Relief washed over me. Surely, they’d be able to fix this with something like a press of a button. But I was wrong. My nightmare was only just beginning. My account was frozen. Locked in a financial tomb, if you will. While they conducted their investigation. No access to funds. No way to plead my case. To make everything worse, the bank was closing in just a couple of minutes. I dropped my ramen, threw my shoes and bolted across campus to the nearest bank branch, only to find that it was locked. I was standing there staring into the dark windows, desperate and realizing that I was now trapped in a weekend long limbo. My wallet had only a single $20 bill that I had to make it last as long as possible. Thank goodness I worked at a pizza place. I survived that weekend by basically eating leftover slices for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Finally, Monday arrived, and I went back to the bank as soon as it opened. Hoping for salvation. I told my entire story to the teller, who was very confused. They called over their bank manager, who then called someone else at the bank. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they allowed me to withdraw $200, barely enough to break the curse of the weekend. But my ordeal wasn’t over. It took another full week for the bank to remove that full $8,000 from my account and free me from this financial paralysis. When it was all said and done, I learned a very important lesson, one that I will continue to share in times of crisis. You need absolutely to have access to an emergency fund or risk being trapped in a nightmare like mine. After all, financial disasters can strike when you least expect it, and not everyone is lucky enough to escape.

Eric Sutton [00:27:41] Surviving only on leftover pizza. A terrifying thought. It looks like having a savings account for financial emergencies is a good weapon to relieve the fear and stress of these scary moments. And that brings us to the end of our tales from the financial crypt. I want to thank all of our Laurel Road member advocates and team members for sharing their frightening financial tales. And thank you for listening. From all of us at Laurel Road, we wish you a happy Halloween. Free from any fiscal frights. And for any listeners with questions about a financial situation of their own, spooky or not, you can now send us your questions for a chance to have them answered by our own Laurel Road experts. And the upcoming season finale of Financing Ambition. Just visit Laurel Road dot com slash listener dash questions and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. And stay tuned for the next episode of Financing Ambition.

Disclosures: 

Only the U.S. Department of Education is able to make a final determination of whether a borrower’s payment history is compliant with federal repayment programs. See student archives for more details. This podcast is produced for information purposes only and is not an offer or solicitation of any product, any views, opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Laurel Road or its affiliates. Laurel Road, KeyBank and its affiliates are not providing any financial, economic, legal accounting or tax advice or recommendations in this podcast. The information contained in this recording may not be current, and Laurel Road has no obligation to provide any updates or changes. Neither Laurel Road nor any of its affiliates makes any representation or warranty of any kind as to the accuracy or completeness of the information in this podcast, and expressly disclaims any and all liability around such. Our guests may receive compensation for promoting Laurel Road. Unauthorized use or reproduction of this podcast is expressly prohibited. Loan approval is subject to credit approval and program guidelines. Programs, rates, terms and products vary and are subject to change at any time without notice. Student loans, mortgages, personal loans, and credit cards are not FDIC insured or guaranteed. For more information and disclosures, go to Laurel Road AECOM. Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank member FDIC.

This podcast is produced for information purposes only and is not an offer or solicitation of any product. Any views, opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Laurel Road or its affiliates. Laurel Road, KeyBank and its affiliates are not providing any financial, economic, legal, accounting or tax advice or recommendations in this podcast. The information contained in this recording may not be current, and Laurel Road has no obligation to provide any updates or changes. Neither Laurel Road nor any of its affiliates makes any representation or warranty, of any kind, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information in this podcast and expressly disclaims any and all liabilities around such.

Our guest(s) have received compensation for promoting Laurel Road. For more information and full disclosures, go to [Laurel Road-dot-com]. Loan approval is subject to credit approval and program guidelines. Programs, rates, terms and products vary and are subject to change at any time without notice. Unauthorized use or reproduction of this podcast is expressly prohibited. Student loans, mortgages, personal loans, and credit cards ARE NOT FDIC INSURED OR GUARANTEED. Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank, Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender and NMLS number 399797.