Had my Countrywide Home Equity Loan suspended yesterday. Now this shouldn't have bothered me -- I had no intention of doing anything but paying it off. Still, it was nice to know it was there.

Called them, and they said they were doing it to 'everyone' and that the terms could be 'reviewed.'

Asked the girl on the phone. "If someone who has made double payments on their initial loan for 21 months, and double interest payments on our HELOC, isn't worthy of credit, who is?"

She laughed, and said she'd bring it up at the next meeting.

Then I got one of my two credit card payments: It looked, for all the world, as if they had raised my rates from 9.99 to 37.37% I went to WaMu and asked them just what the hell it meant. While the bank manager was calling the credit card people, I pulled out my savings, paid off the card in full, took the rest as a cashier's check and handed it to Linda and told her to pay down on her credit card with it. (From the moment I accepted credit cards back in my life, I made a deal with myself that I would keep an equal amount of dollars in the bank for every dollar I borrowed.)

I'm pretty sure, after the dust settled, that the terms hadn't really changed -- it was something about adding all the possible charges over course of the year -- for instance cash withdrawals I hadn't even made -- but I tell you what: If it confused the guy on the phone and the manager of a Bank, the terms were poorly phrased.

I also closed the card.

Woke up this morning feeling that I had totally overreacted. I just removed a great deal of money from access, at a time when things are looking dicey. I also completely cleared out one of my savings accounts when cash is king. Wish I hadn't done that. I did pay off a card, which isn't all bad. And I suppose another card is probably in the mail today, or tomorrow. I've been thinking that, if I'm going to use cards for business I should get some travelers miles or something.

This is one of the reasons I'm just not a great businessman. I blow a fuse on a periodic basis and make major decisions that hurt my own situation.

But I also woke up feeling better than I did last night. I certainly can make a case that it's better to pay off money I'm paying 9.99% on with money I was earning, what 1.5%? interest?

Still, I'd also feel better with that cushion in the bank.