posted on Oct, 21 2007 @ 10:14 PM
Thanks for all the replies fellow ATS'ers.
Now to address some comments.
Laziness in no way factored in to my problem.
The job at which I worked closed down with less than a week's notice. I (and several others) applied for unemployment and were rejected several
times.
The job situation here was horrible (and still is actually). All of us spent several months trying to find new jobs.
Maybe you don't know this, but when you don't work your income is ZERO. Yet, I still had a $625 a month rent payment (rent here is attrocious since
this is a "college" town), food to buy, car payment ($225), power bill (roughly $100 a month), phone bill ($35 a month), car insurance ($79 a month)
and various other REQUIREMENTS (ie: toilet paper and other home needs).
When you have no income and have to borrow from family just to pay your bills, then even $12 bucks can indeed be hard to come up with. However, I
wasn't lucky enough to have a $12 payment to make. My minimum at that time was around $70 bucks. However, that first month that I was unable to pay
on time, I gained a late charge of $45 dollars. Therefore, my minimum payment went to $115. Then the next month, another late charge and another 75
bucks. That minimum payment added up with a quickness. After the 3 months, my minimum payment was over the $500 mark that was due just to get back on
track. I payed that and more first thing and STILL have not recovered for it.
I don't know where some of you guys live, but here, if you have no credit you are NOTHING. Literally 99% of everything you do requires a credit score
or else a HUGE down payment. Hell, if you buy a $2000 car here and don't have the required "good" credit score, your down payment is 1000 bucks and
your payments are STILL a ridiculous amount.
Your credit score dominates your life. How? Because if you don't have a good one, EVEN IF your application for something is approved, you either get
stuck with a huge deposit (for a rental property) or you get stuck with a 30% interest rate. Let's not even get into having NO credit. I'll keep
that one simple, my wife has no credit (because she has never developed a file by paying ALL of her expenses in cash) and she can get absolutely
NOTHING in her name. She can't even get the power turned on in her name WITH a deposit. She can't get a car without at LEAST a 25% down payment, and
even then her interest rates sit at LEAST at 16%.
I use to feel exactly the same as some of you guys and so did my friend. However, as I said before, you will NOT find anyone more responsible with
money that he is and his tune is quickly changing, just as mine did.
Credit is a crutch, and in most cases, a REQUIREMENT.
To the person that said a charge off was the way to go. I use to think that as well, however, there is a problem there as well. IF you charge off a
credit card, in most cases they will continue to report that card as a charge off every single month until it is paid in full. So, if you go a year
without payment, you effectively end up with 12 charge offs when you only have one.
Technically, this practice is illegal. Yet, there isn't much you can do about it without legal assistance, and we ALL know how expensive that can
be.
I only started this thread in the hopes of helping someone else BEFORE it happens to them. If you would like to criticize me and make assumptions that
are (I promise) wrong, that's okay too. I am telling it exactly as it happened and I PROMISE it can, and likely will, happen to you to.
As I said, the credit system is designed so it's hard to maintain "good" credit unless you are wealthy enough to keep it up no matter what happens
to you.
All it takes, for a normal working class man or woman, is a month of hardship to throw 10 years or more of perfect credit history down the toilet.
Credit is a scam that effects all of us not fortunate enough to have the cash on hand to pay for EVERYTHING.
Think I ended up in this situation because of laziness all you want. I can assure you that you are wrong. I fell into hard times for a few months
several years ago and I'm still paying for it to this day.
Just another short story for your amusement.
My father passed away not long before I lost my job. Several months after he died, I received his life insurance money. At that point, I completely
paid off everything I owed and for the next two years was able to pay cash for everything I purchased.
During this time, I purchased a home and a new truck and paid ALL of my bills at least a year in advance.
Then, a year ago, the motor on my truck frozen up and I didn't have the money to fix it. So, I checked the local dealerships and tried to find a
suitable replacement.
EACH AND EVERY TIME I got down to the nitty gritty of getting the vehicle financed I was either turned down or the down payment was more than the cost
of a new motor for my old truck. When I asked them what was going on, they said I had no credit history for the last couple of years and asked why
that was. When I told them it was because I had the cash to pay for everything. They looked at me like I was crazy and said something along the lines
of, "Why would you do that? You should have financed it to build your credit score."
What's the point? The fact that I paid cash for my goods and services for the past several years HURT ME when the time came that I no longer had
several thousand in cash to pay for a vehicle.
If you are a middle or lower class citizen, you better watch your butt when it comes to your credit. All it takes is ONE small period of hard times
for you to end up in credit hell.
Thanks again for the comments and thanks to those couple of you who felt the need to "correct" my story based on your opinion.
I have told this EXACTLY as it happened.
Jasn