Hating On The Banks, Lenders And Credit Card Companies

[PaulQ]

When I was a young man, just out of high school, I recognized that if I had a car, I could get more work. All I could afford was a $100 clunker, and during the couple of months it ran, I was able to do all sorts of jobs and make pretty good money. Unfortunately, when the clunker died, those opportunities dried up, and the cost to repair was often quite prohibitive. As such, by not having a reliable means of transportation, employers that paid a decent wage wouldn't commit to me.

 

The solution seemed simple: Buy a brand new car with warranty. I picked out the cheapest, most fuel efficient car I could find. At the time, this was a Mazda 323 hatchback, completely bare bones with zero options. I applied for financing. I knew I could afford the first couple of payments, after which I knew I could secure even more work doing all kinds of jobs. My application was denied, because it was determined that I wasn't earning enough money to make the payments. Well, duh...of course, if I didn't have a car, I couldn't get out to all the good paying jobs. I already had some decent work lined up, but that still wasn't enough for them.

 

Fast forward a few short years. I went back to College, got some good paying work, saved up some money, bought a used cheap little hatchback for $2500, which provided me the transportation I needed to get to the better paying jobs...so now I have a good regular paycheque and money in the bank. Lo and behold, I started getting all sorts of offers from credit card companies and for loans. When I needed that $7000, they turned me down...but when I learned to live without credit and had no use for them, they call me up and offer me thousands more than I needed back then.

 

Then there was the time when I had to cash a cheque after the banks were closed. I had been working construction for a month, and finally got a nice, big end-of-month paycheque. It was a business cheque; not a personal one, and it was from a well-known construction company. It was Friday night, and I was determined to spend some money and have some fun! I noticed that the Money Mart across the road from the bank was still open. I saw that they would charge 10%; which was over $200 for this cheque, but I was young and itchin' to get my Friday night fun underway. I walked in, filled out all the forms, provided them with every piece of ID in my wallet. I then gave the nice lady the cheque and waited. After a good 10 minutes had passed, she returned to tell me she couldn't cash it because all the banks were closed. That's when I lost it. "Of course the banks are closed! Why the hell do you think I came here? Do you honestly think I'd give you 10% of this cheque if I could have walked into the bank and cash it for nothing? What the hell kind of sham business is this anyway?" I went on for a good five minutes about how useless they were.

 

I use credit cards today, but only for the points or other cash-back benefits. I never carry a balance. I signed up for the CitiBank Petro Points card to get a few cents off each liter of gas I would buy. Problem is, someone fat-fingered my address when they punched it into the computer, and I never got the bill. I didn't know there was a problem until I tried to use the card and found it was rejected. After calling up the credit card company and straightening out my address information, they informed me that they were still going to charge me interest for the month they screwed up my address. Apparently, this is in the fine print in the contract. I paid the $6 or so, and told them I'd never buy gas at Petro Canada again, and demanded they cancel my account.

 

I just really hate credit card companies, payday loan companies, and generally other lending institutions. I really do. I think they're all a bunch of parasites. Our society would be so much better without them. To me, they're worse than organized religion, even though they employ many of the same tactics. How about you? Sick of these companies yet?

[OpheliaGinger]

If money is involved, you can pretty much be guaranteed that they will try to leech as much as they can out of you.

[Guest Davka]

I just really hate credit card companies, payday loan companies, and generally other lending institutions. I really do. I think they're all a bunch of parasites. Our society would be so much better without them. To me, they're worse than organized religion, even though they employ many of the same tactics. How about you? Sick of these companies yet?

I find the credit card companies to be quite useful. I am, of course, their nightmare customer, since I never carry a balance and simply hang up on their phone reps when they try to sell me extra "benefits." I used to use a debit card exclusively, but now I've got one of the frequent flier cards that gives free air miles for every dollar I spend. Of course, the do it by screwing 99% of their customers, but hey - I get to screw them back.

 

I also drove crappy cars for many years. The trick is to buy another $100 clunker when the old one dies. You can usually get a few dollars from the junkyard for the dead one.

 

I despise what the credit card companies do and what they stand for, but plastic is a hell of a lot more convenient than paper. You just need to learn never to spend money you don't have. I pay the full balance every two weeks to keep the bastards from getting even a single penny in interest.

[RankStranger]

I don't have any credit cards, and as long as banks can essentially make up the rules as they go along (which is what three pages of fine-print lawyer-speak amount to), I'll never get one. Hell, the interest rates alone are reason enough to avoid those things like the plague.

 

I've got by for quite a few years with only a debit card- and my wife does the same.

 

And I haven't had a car payment since I was 20. It's more difficult for people who aren't mechanics, but even my parents have managed to pay cash for their vehicles for well over a decade (and they are neither rich nor mechanically inclined). The trick is to start with a paid-off vehicle, and start saving for the next one well in advance... basically making the payments to yourself. My cars are old and ugly, but on average (including purchase price and repairs) I spend less than $1000 per year on all my vehicles (two cars and a really nasty old truck). And I'm not required to pay for collision insurance. Of course, the truck is 25 years old, and I've had it for 9 years. One car is 15 years old, and we've had it for maybe 11 years. And the good car (with only 198,000 miles) is a mere 8 years old, and we've had it for 4 years.

[Kurari]

Agreed. Right now I have one credit card and I only use it to build credit history.

 

I'm trying to get a $10,000 loan to help fix up my deceased mother's house so my brother and I can get it on the market. I do not own property or have any assets to liquidate, and I was told by a man at the bank I applied to that it's highly unusual to see someone with only one credit card, and in order for me to qualify for a loan, I should have at least 3-5 credit cards.

 

What the ding dong diggity FUCK. The American economy is in the shitter from BAD loans and people unable to pay off their mortgages and credit card debts, and they want me to have FIVE FUCKING CARDS?! Why the hell would I want five cards when I can just use my debit card? Why do I need to go through the hassle of figuring out when to to pay what

 

Please excuse me that I'm not an idiot and I don't use money I haven't already earned. I have no use for a credit cards except in emergency situations, and frankly I KNOW we could come up with better ways to show history of fiscal responsibility than forcing people to have twenty zillion credit cards and going through the irritation of trying to keep track of them all. Look exactly where THAT got us and our economy, yes?

 

In the meantime, I still have to figure out a way to get approved for the money we need for the remodeling of the house.

 

So I feel you entirely on this rant.

[godlessgrrl]

What's nailing me is student loans.

 

There are no consumer protections on student loans; the Fair Credit rules simply don't apply to Sallie Mae, and they know it. If I'd known that at the time I took out my student loans, I would've financed my education very differently. It probably would've helped to have had an FA worth a damn at the time too, but as it is the ones I chose were too interested in earning commission off my investments to actually bother with helping me come up with wise financial plans, and I didn't figure that out until it was far too late.

 

It probably also would've helped to have gotten some solid lessons in economics and finance early on instead of having money treated like a taboo subject for men to handle and women not to worry our pretty little heads about. That attitude pisses me off no end, because it's taken me decades to figure it all out on my own, and has cost me tens of thousands of dollars in bad mistakes and hard lessons.

 

So does the "you've got nobody to blame but yourself" attitude, so if anybody is thinking of using that on me right now, don't bother - let's just take it as read that you've already lectured me about it, and I've already responded with a hale and hearty "fuck you, thanks for the judgmental bullshit, too bad you don't have anything better to offer." That way we'll both save time and energy on the matter and can discuss other topics constructively.

 

I fucking hate money.

[hereticzero]

PaulQ: Your story I can relate to. I was in a position years ago when I could not cash a check for lack of a bank account, I had no money to open an account and when I earned or someone gave me a check I had to use the check cashing services either at the Super Market or the ones down town for quite a fee. I met a Catholic Priest who had pity on me and cashed my checks for me and he even gave me a place in the church to sleep for two weeks! He was the only religious person, outside my family, that ever did a nice thing for me. (I was a Protestant and we used to talk about my dad being a minister and married with a family. It must have made a impact on his life because 20 years later he left the priesthood and got married. His name was Father John Kokal of Utah.)

 

I actually just recently got my credit card company to refund a late payment fee they charged me even though they got my payment on the day it was due. I pay my bills electronically. I demanded they refund the fee, and to my surprise, they did just that! When that card is paid off, I will not use them again. I have struggled for several years to pay off CC debt. I am getting them paid off, slowly but surely but the way the companies treat even those who pay on time should be a crime. My interest rates go up and I've not missed a payment nor was I late.

 

I am working my way to a cash only way of life now that I am getting towards 55. I don't want to spend the rest of my life fighting with some dumb ass from Pakistan on the phone over CC charges. I had a problem with my mortgage once and the nitwit spent 5 minutes trying to get me to take their Credit Card. And then when I said, 'no', he acted like he could not understand English.

[RankStranger]

What's nailing me is student loans.

 

There are no consumer protections on student loans; the Fair Credit rules simply don't apply to Sallie Mae, and they know it. If I'd known that at the time I took out my student loans, I would've financed my education very differently. It probably would've helped to have had an FA worth a damn at the time too, but as it is the ones I chose were too interested in earning commission off my investments to actually bother with helping me come up with wise financial plans, and I didn't figure that out until it was far too late.

 

It probably also would've helped to have gotten some solid lessons in economics and finance early on instead of having money treated like a taboo subject for men to handle and women not to worry our pretty little heads about. That attitude pisses me off no end, because it's taken me decades to figure it all out on my own, and has cost me tens of thousands of dollars in bad mistakes and hard lessons.

 

So does the "you've got nobody to blame but yourself" attitude, so if anybody is thinking of using that on me right now, don't bother - let's just take it as read that you've already lectured me about it, and I've already responded with a hale and hearty "fuck you, thanks for the judgmental bullshit, too bad you don't have anything better to offer." That way we'll both save time and energy on the matter and can discuss other topics constructively.

 

I fucking hate money.

 

I remember that you mentioned this in some more detail a year or two ago. Scary stuff. Student loans are the only debt that the wife and I have, and your previous rant is one of the things that have inspired me to get them paid off and gone. Hopefully we'll have hers paid off in a year or so... maybe two years for all of them. The fact that they can't be bankrupted is what concerns me... makes me wonder if one could pay them off via other means (credit cards, home equity, etc.), then go for bankruptcy if necessary.

 

It's probably not feasible, though. If you have good enough credit to take out loans to pay off student loans, then you're probably nowhere near bankruptcy.

[Vixentrox]

I have and use credit cards but I almost always pay off the entire bill when it arrives. Pretty convient really. I really don't get how people can be so foolish to run up huge credit card bills beyond genuine emergincies. Did they really need a big screen TV?

 

As for checking accounts and such, I have never had any trouble at all cashing checks, getting a loan, and the like. Even when I didn't have a car.

[godlessgrrl]

I remember that you mentioned this in some more detail a year or two ago. Scary stuff. Student loans are the only debt that the wife and I have, and your previous rant is one of the things that have inspired me to get them paid off and gone. Hopefully we'll have hers paid off in a year or so... maybe two years for all of them. The fact that they can't be bankrupted is what concerns me... makes me wonder if one could pay them off via other means (credit cards, home equity, etc.), then go for bankruptcy if necessary.

 

It's probably not feasible, though. If you have good enough credit to take out loans to pay off student loans, then you're probably nowhere near bankruptcy.

 

Yeah, it's pretty scary. Student loan debt is the largest debt we currently carry. SLMA became a publicly traded company in 2004 and they're now in it strictly for profit; "good enough credit" to them means "has a pulse", which is another scary thing. There's some leeway for forbearances (during which they capitalize any accrued interest), but beyond that there's no reason for them to work with any loan holder at all, and they know it.

 

I was pretty damn naive and uninformed when I took those loans out. I'm still determined to pay them off, but I wish I'd never taken them in the first place.

 

Ah well, wishes, horses... somehow the stupid financial decisions are the most costly and the ones that frustrate me the most.

[I Broke Free]

And I haven't had a car payment since I was 20. It's more difficult for people who aren't mechanics, but even my parents have managed to pay cash for their vehicles for well over a decade (and they are neither rich nor mechanically inclined). The trick is to start with a paid-off vehicle, and start saving for the next one well in advance... basically making the payments to yourself. My cars are old and ugly, but on average (including purchase price and repairs) I spend less than $1000 per year on all my vehicles (two cars and a really nasty old truck). And I'm not required to pay for collision insurance. Of course, the truck is 25 years old, and I've had it for 9 years. One car is 15 years old, and we've had it for maybe 11 years. And the good car (with only 198,000 miles) is a mere 8 years old, and we've had it for 4 years.

 

My parents gave me the same advice and I have always followed it. I have never had a car payment in my life (age 49). My first car was a used Datsun B210 with the same power as your typical lawn mower, but I paid cash for it. I sold it when I moved to San Francisco and went without a car for next 17 years. (I loved not owning a car. I find them a necessary but expensive and burdensome liability now) I saved for year before buying my second car at the age of 38, another piece of cheap crap. Now here I am at the age 49 and I am only on car number three. I saved and paid cash for a used 2002 Volvo S60 about three years ago. Right after that my partner and I saved up the cash for his car which we paid cash for last year.

 

Right now the only interest my partner and I pay is for our mortgage and that is expected and currently unavoidable. The amount we pay each year is falling fast and with our current rate of extra payments we hope to have the house paid off within five years. My goal is to not pay any more interest to anyone after that. Except for your home the idea of buying something and paying for it later just never occurs to me. It’s a trap, a trap paved with pretty shiny objects on a downhill slope.