Don't Try This At Home

One of my tenants is having a bit of an issue. She has been renting from me for more than a year.

Ms. Jane was doing just fine. Everything was going swimmingly until a few months ago when she bounced a check. From what I understand, she took a check from her daughter, paid bills on it and her daughter's check bounced, thus causing a lot of chaos in Ms. Jane's life.

As soon as her rent check bounced and before I even knew, she sent me an e-mail and called me letting me know this happened. However, she apparently had bounced several checks. From what I understand, she ran up more than $1,000 in bank fees alone.

Though things are ok with her and I, I spoke with her yesterday. She has not caught up since she had this fiasco. And, to make matters worse, she thought she could do a payday loan to just take care of what she owed, get caught up with her bills and then just pay back the payday loan. So, she went online, put in a bunch of personal information about her life, and then had a change of heart. She couldn't do it. She didn't take out the payday loan.

However, the payday loan people didn't see it that way. They took money out of her bank account, signed her up for a variety of online programs that she (and I) have never heard of and have debited her account. Now sadly she is overdrawn again.

I suggested she contact the Alabama Attorney General's Office to see if she could recoup some of her losses. She warned me never to do a payday loan and told me to tell everyone I knew to do the same. No problem!