You can save so much money by simply being brave enough to ask for it ... back. The trend seems near epidemic ... billing errors are so common on my personal bills, I have to wonder if it hasn't become a form of legal robbery. If I question errors or negotiate interest rates, I'm nearly always granted what I request. But I have to ask, and so many don't or won't ... or can't.

Just in the past month, I reversed a charge for a hotel room I had cancelled weeks in advance and got a refund from Paypal for a product never delivered from Ebay for a total of $120. I got a refund of money overpaid when I paid a balance on a credit card. Within the past few months, the cell carrier suddenly forgot I had free nights and weekends and billed me the overage. Interest rates on credit cards jump unexpectedly and with subdued "notice" and doctors offices forget to post the payment that has already cleared your bank.

We have to READ every single bill that comes through our household. Scrutinize it. To some, that would seem common sense but to some of us in a time crunch, we'd have to admit we've written a quick check or just let the automatic bill-pay do its thing.

I'm willing to bet that at some point, the practice will be discovered as having been a willful and insidious act with great rewards from the majority of us who abdicate our financial power. Finances are emotionally intimidating to most of us. Even when you have enough, just paying bills and balancing the checking account is like walking a plank somehow.

But the best way to reclaim your financial power is to know what you have and how it's being spent. And after you find the first error and get it corrected or reversed, you're going to have your mojo back. Keep a tab of how much you reclaim in a year and then do something really special for yourself with the money.

Love lots,
Sophie