Deadbeats Unite

I continually find myself between a rock and a hard place.  This week started out on a great foot.  Everything was clicking, and like I said in an earlier post, I was waiting for the bottom to drop out.

This week I have been shopping for a new car.  The wifey and I discussed what payment increase, if any, we could afford, and I promptly went shopping for a new car.  Now many people are like, no problem, they go, pick out a car, and they leave with the car if it fits their budget.  Not so much with me.

First they have to do that pesky credit report with me.  I knew what I could and could not afford.  I knew what I wanted as an interest rate.  I knew that if I combined a certain amount of negative equity into the price of the car I wanted, I knew what I could afford.  

I had been e-mailing my car salesman for two weeks, trying to find the car that I was looking for.  Hoping the rebates on the '09 models would be awesome, I set my sights high.  I wanted a Fusion, with sync.  Minimum price with rebates was just a little too much.  So I down sized, give me a Focus with same features.  That put it with in $9.50 of what I pay now.  Now click here to see why I only want a Ford.

Well the credit report comes back and I am confused.  What do you mean I only qualify for a 25% interest rate?  That is what happened when I got my last car, but desperation closed that deal.  But 3 1/2 years of perfect payments on my first car, and I got another car and we have made perfect payments on that car, and plus over the past 2 years I have paid off all my debt down to my cars only, my credit score has grown to less than 100 points of my last credit report.  

How can this happen?  It can be frustrating.  5 years ago I sat looking at my credit report, and I was flirting with bankruptcy.  Many people talked me out of this.  They said, "Oh, you're not in that bad of shape, just pay it down."

So that is what I did.  With my wife's superior skills of money management, I paid off my student loans, I paid off old credit cards that were in default.  I paid off EVERYTHING, but my cars.  I ran my credit and wow, it went all the way up 200 points at one point.  Then something else from close to 5 years ago hit my credit report and dropped it back down 100 points.  The item was less than 200 bucks.  It killed all the work I had done.  Now 6 months later my score has not MOVED!  It is still there.

I was told by many people, go to a department store and get a credit card and get something and pay on it every month.  Well with this world wide credit crunch, my credit isn't even good enough for that.  

So I want to personally thank all the stupid people out there who were offered loans with an interest only payment from Countrywide, Citibank, Chase, and what ever other bank also offered these.  It wasn't the banks fault that the loan defaulted, it was yours.  What part of common sense told you that ONLY paying interest for 5 years was a good idea.  Sure the interest on a $350,000 home was only $1100.00 but eventually you have to pay principal too.  Now with interest where does it put your payment.  You NEEDED to do you research first and you didn't.  If someone gave me a gun and said I could shoot anyone I want and not get in trouble doesn't mean I am about to pull the trigger.  So you failed and you brought the rest of the economy with you. Now you have people who refused to declare bankruptcy when it was so easy and try and do the right things and now we are getting the crappy deals. 

Now the epilog to the story.  The person who was so ADAMANT I NOT declare bankruptcy recently did what they told ME not to do.  Now they went from NO credit to, having gotten a new loan for $250,000 for a new house, has 2 new cars, and a 750 credit score.  They gave up and I fought to do the right thing.  

How is this fair?