Travel Spouse Confession: I hate calling credit card companies

If you are married to a travel hacker, this sort of request will sound familiar: "Hey, I need you to call about your credit card. The annual fee is about to hit."

Not a big deal to make a call, right? It's a small price to pay for all those free trips all over the world. And yet...I whine. I whine and I whine about making these 5 minute calls, and if Austin could impersonate a woman's voice to any convincing degree, he would probably just call for me so he wouldn't have to listen to me whine anymore. I know I should buck up and do my part with good grace, but I confess: I hate calling credit card companies.

Let me try and persuade you though--my hatred is not without basis! A couple of times on calls, I have literally been running around the house with 3 crying children trailing after me, all while trying to remember random personal information. Most of the time though, I simply hate these calls because I don't know what I'm going to be asked, and I hate sounding stupid.

Maybe I should stop telling Austin to fill out my credit card applications for me, as this leads to problems. For example, I know the name of my first pet, but what would Austin have put down as the name of my first pet? And my on-the-spot guess is always wrong.

One time I called to cancel a credit card and couldn't remember the password on the account. My mystery question was: "A favorite vacation place." For some reason, perhaps the accent and fast talking, I thought the question was "A favorite vacation place you went to as a child." Uhhhh...my family didn't really do a "vacation place." Unless you count working on my grandparents' farm in Wyoming in the summers. Which I guessed, by the way. I got several helpful hints from the polite Indian man, who was probably repeatedly smacking his forehead in frustration. "It's a state." "It starts with the letter 'H.'" Me: uuuhhhhhhmmmm. Gentle readers, do you know how many states start with the letter 'H?'" Yeah. One. 

And...that's basically my calling experiences in a nutshell. Hopefully I've persuaded you that I'm not as spoiled and selfish as my confession makes me seem, but no matter how unwarranted you think it may be, I will continue to whine about calling credit card companies.