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If you have an emergency and have to go to the hospital, you’ll owe the hospital a lot of money. (I got into a car wreck and broke my ankle and my arm. My hospital bill was around $20,000)

You’ll also owe the ambulance provider, if you need one. (My ambulance bill was about $800)

You may get separate bills from the anesthesiologist or surgeon. (My anesthesiologist bill was $1,700)

You may need follow-up appointments. (My orthopedic surgeon billed me for the appointments and his surgery together and it was about $1,000)

You’ve also got to pay for medical equipment you need afterward, like crutches or a walking boot. (Mine cost about $75)

Altogether, I ended up with almost $24,000 in medical debt from one car accident. That’s a really scary number for someone like me who makes $10/hr at a 12 hour a week job.

I got my debt down to $1075 by making some phone calls and submitting some paperwork.

The first thing I did was contact the hospital. They don’t make it easy to find, but many hospitals (perhaps most hospitals?) have financial assistance programs for people who can’t afford medical bills. I don’t make a lot of money, and I have bills to pay, so they were able to help me. I called the billing department and asked if they had any assistance programs for low income people who can’t pay their bills. I had to call multiple times, and I got transferred in circles by people who didn’t know what I was talking about. Finally, I got an appointment with someone in “Eligibility Services” (I don’t know what other hospitals call it, if it’s something different). I had to bring my pay stubs and copies of all of my bills. When I got to the hospital for the appointment, nobody knew what I was talking about so I had to wander a little to find where I needed to go. I spoke with the guy in Eligibility Services, and I waited for a decision on how much of the bill they would forgive. A month later, I got a call telling me it was totally forgiven.

I did the same thing for my ambulance bill and my anesthesiologist, but the process was a LOT easier. I just had to mail some paperwork and it was totally forgiven.

I didn’t bother with the medical equipment suppliers, since the bills came from separate companies and I didn’t feel like going through the process twice for $75. I was assured at the hospital that they had similar programs for debt forgiveness, so I could have probably avoided paying that too.

The only thing I couldn’t get taken care of was the surgeon/follow-up appointment cost, but they were able to put me on a no-interest payment plan.

Just a little bit about me before I get into it. My name is Hannah, I’m 20 (she/her, bi) and living in California, going to college full-time. Thanks in advance for reading this.

So I never thought you guys would be seeing a post like this from me. But in all honesty, I’m running out of options if I want to continue going to college. I’m having to pull out loan after loan to pay my bills and make sure I eat, but sometimes those loans don’t get to me for 10+ days. 

The cost of living where I am is absolutely excruciating. I’m paying $1,045 a month for rent, not including $39.99/mo for just internet and $20.00/mo for power. Thankfully, Virgin Mobile is offerng a year of service for $1 so I’ll be saving $30/mo from my previous phone plan once I switch. Every little bit counts! 

I am the first in my family to go to college, an only child raised by my single spottily-employed father, and I have just entered my 3rd year of university. I would be absolutely devastated if I had to stop now. 

Things were easier when I had a job, but even then my manager was really abusive (really) to me, so I had to quit. I was barely making minimum wage and my boss (she’s a story for another day) was threatening to take away our tips. I can take a lot, generally. But my manager would ask me to do everyone else’s dirty work while simultaneously making fun of me for my looks, which caused my anxiety to flare up and I would absolutely dread going to work. I have been self-conscious about my looks, sexuality, weight, everything since I was a little girl. And he would always capitalize on that, thinking it was hilarious. He wouldn’t make any of the other girls do what he made me do (scrub toilets, clean out things that were absolutely disgusting, and none of this was ever in my job description btw). He wouldn’t treat any of the other girls the way he treated me, he would even be friendly to them and hang out with them on the weekends, bring them food etc. But all I got was made fun of for my appearance, and I had to do everyone else’s dirty/hard work while getting paid the same. I really wish I was exaggerating about that. I can go more into detail about this shitty work situation in PMs if you want, but this story is ultimately for another day and not even a majority of what I’m dealing with currently. So I apologize for the mini-rant.

What I’m asking from you is anything you wish to contribute. Whether it be your positivity/motivating words, a couple extra bucks, a signal boost to this post, anything you can comfortably offer to me I will be extremely grateful and forever in your debt. I want to be able to finish college and pay my bills, and I’m tired of always being so damn hungry. I know that’s dramatic, but after everything that’s happened to me over this past year with losing financial aid, battling with depression/anxiety, having to forfeit a job because of my 20-unit course load and horrible manager…. It’s a lot for me to handle all at once while also going into extreme student loan debt. I’m not used to asking for help, I’ve always handled everything on my own. But right now, I really need your help.

I want to thank you for taking your time to read this, signal boost this, donate or whatever you decide to do. I’m at a really low point in my life and even encouraging words would make me feel a hell of a lot better. 

Donation links, if you wish to donate. Even a dollar helps, and I will be sure to personally thank you and express my gratitude. If you have any questions at all or want to talk, my ask is always open and I generally reply to messages right away. Thank you again 💕

Squarecash ($forestryhannah)

PayPal

And they are getting even more strict when it comes to not using invoices for charging for Digital Goods.

Whatever Invoices make you uncomfortable or not, you gotta start using them if you want to keep your PayPal and your money. Changes starting this October 19th.

Honestly I don’t get why so many artists are so overwhelmed by invoices, takes just a few clicks to set up. 

And is not only “oh you have to use invoices because PayPal says so” if you don’t use invoices you’re putting yourself at risk of being scammed by an user abusing the buyer’s protection. 

Since PayPal ain’t got no idea of what those $50 you received were for, but the buyer is saying they didn’t got anything for the money, PayPal will just side with the buyer.

I’m seriously begging ppl, start using invoices. I’m tired of seeing ppl complain their paypal was banned, or is under investigation, or worse, the $100 they got for a very complicated commission, 3 months later get a refund issue. 

just

start

using

invoices

for your own sake. 

Here is how you use invoices because I can’t keep playing devil’d advocate, yes I would love to help you get your PayPal restored but just this last month I had to help three persons, and they were MORE than aware of this issues. 

Just protect yourself. 

Step 1. You login and click here

Step 2. You click create new Invoice. YOU NEVER CLICK REQUEST MONEY, unless you want to risk yourself to get scamer by buyer’s protection exploit and not only lose your money but your paypal account, and any future paypal linked to your irl name. 

Step 3 You follow this steps

1. Invoice for amount only

2. Ask your client for their PayPal email and put in that field

3. Add a vague description of what you’re doing, something like “Character Coloured with Background” is good enough, and if you need more than 1 character you can type in “2″ where it says amount, or just say “2 characters”.

Warning: don’t type in “Naruto rawing Sasuke”. That will get you banned. 

4. Click send. 

Optional steps. Create a template, doesn’t take more than 10 minutes and it will save you a lot of time for future invoices, you can even click on “items” right next to “create invoice” and add a list of services you offer such as “character sketch” “character flats” along with a price, so next time you invoice you just add to the invoice from your list of items and you saved yourself some more time. 

More importantly, you protect yourself from buyer’s protection exploit because if PayPal knows you’re doing digital goods, then you will be allowed that you did in fact created a digital good. 

Keep PayPal happy, as for right now there are no alternatives to this service, and this is the only source of income for many freelancers. 

SO go to the invoice (i think this can be done BEFORE the buyer pays?? Didnt try myself tho, i did it after it was paid), and click on VIEW DETAILS in that first box 

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click ADD TRACKING INFO  (YES COUNTER-INTUITIVE AS BALLLLLS.)

of course HERE IS WHERE YOU'RE GIVEN INSTRUCTIONS ON PROCESSING DIGITAL GOODS. HIDDEN BEHIND A BUTTON YOU WOULDNT PRESS IF YOU WERE, SAY, TRYING TO SELL DIGITAL GOODS. Select Order Processed/Service Rendered

hoots about my fire emblem rarepairs