I happened to me and several others in my neighborhood. The police department even told me they were investigating the local post office because they were getting a lot of reports and they thought it was a rogue postal worker stealing the checks

It's a lot more straightforward when a fraudulent check is cashed that you didn't sign. the issue with check washing is that - your signature stays on the check so it looks like you authorized it.

I had this happen to me a few months ago unfortunately, but I was able to get my money refunded by my bank. I had to file a police report and a bunch of written statements swearing that although that was my signature on the check, that wasn't who I wrote the check to, or the amount it was written for.

From what the bank told me: when a check is cashed, that bank tells my bank to hand over the money to pay the person depositing it. When I filed for fraud, my bank tells the other bank to return the money because that was a bad check. That bank then has to investigate and come to the conclusion that it was in fact fraud, return the money to my bank, which can then return it to me. I was quoted 60-90 days. I had my money back the next day.

It might vary based on the terms of your credit card but it could be a daily compounding rate in which case you pay interest every day that your balance is outstanding

Pay as much as you can before it's due. That way you don't take the hit of a "late payment" and you'll minimize the amount of interest accumulated. As soon as you get the money, pay the rest of the bill

I think it's unwise to assume you don't need "emergency money" because you never know what will happen. That being said, you probably don't need more than 10k on hand if you're in a stable situation

From what OP posted, the emergency fund is a year worth of expenses. Even taking 6.5k out, there would still be more than enough of an emergency fund left over