It Takes Money To Make Money

I had a really strange phone call last night. My husband's grandmother called me to tell me she had just received a phone call from a company asking if I wanted to sell my shares. I have no idea how they got her phone number and associated it with me. We don't even share the same last name.

To give you some background. About four years ago I worked at a wireless phone company. I quit working there in the fall of 2005. Two years later that phone company was sold. I have four shares in that company. I did receive a notice in the mail that since the company was no longer publicly traded I could cash out my shares. However, it was going to cost me some money in the form of a processing fee. I promptly forgot about it cause I didn't have the money for the processing fee.

After receiving the phone call last night I called their number and was connected with a customer service representative. To make a long story short he told me up front I would have to pay a 3% missing certificate fee to cash out my shares. 3% didn't sound so bad so I asked how much my account was worth. After all 3% of $286 is only $8.58. Yeehaw!

Then the bad news. There was a processing fee of $50 and the minimum fee for the 3% was $20.

So, after I pay $70 I will get back $286. If the wireless company was still being traded I wouldn't even bother. This was not a panic decision made regarding the current state of the stock market either. As it stands I asked for money to come in to my life and I got what I asked for. I will be $216 (after $70) closer to paying for the Landmark Forum!