Patrick Says

I’ve talked before about the love-hate relationship I have with US Bank. I’m not going to link to it, but I’m sure the related links at the end of this post will point to those US Bank themed posts. Anyway, I really need to leave US Bank, but changing banks is such a pain…

I was watching PBS last night and they had a special about America’s problems with plastic and they told me about a procedure banks follow (and I’m 100% sure US Bank does) that blows my mind.

The banks process your transactions from highest to lowest regardless of time. For example, you have a $30 charge at a clothing store, a $75 motorhome warranty payment, two $5 coffee charges, a $20 charge and at the end of the day, a $500 charge. The bank will run the $500 charge first. They claim that’s what customers want, although when pressed by the interviewer, the banker pointed to vague, unverifiable ‘research data’.

Now this procedure doesn’t cause a problem unless you made a mistake and are underfunded in your acount. Instead of the one $500 being an overdraft after the others all paid, the other five smaller transactions go into overdraft. In US Bank’s case, this would rack them $175 in fees. Wow, these guys are a-holes. I also have a theory that US Bank holds transactions for days in the hopes that I’ll go below $0 and then they can push them and rack up more fees. I can’t prove this, so for the record, it’s only a hunch.

The other thing that really irks me is when I deposit cash to a teller and the deposit shows as ‘pending’ for the whole day. COME ON! I GAVE YOU CURRENCY! YOU SAW IT AND VERIFIED! Do not hold up my money.

God, I need to leave US Bank…

I thought I should post something about those financial problems I was having earlier. Yep. Still have them. Things are slightly better. I got a personal loan to pay off the rapist installment loan.

That helped.

I found some other revenue sources that will help alleviate some of the medical bills and get some needed car repairs.

We’re getting by. But certainly not anywhere near out of the woods yet.

For instance, the last computer in the house is on its last legs. I can’t afford things like life insurance, new hospital bills, the busted-up retaining wall on the side of the house or clothes for the boys who seem to grow like weeds.

Still, I’m working on it.

We’ve been talking about how I got into this financial mess I’m in. While the installment loan was certainly bad, it wasn’t the only thing hurting our finances. Nope. Long before the installment loan was the home equity line of credit. But first, we need a little back-story.

I was never much for home ownership. The beauty of rentals is that when crap breaks, you call the landlord and THEY fix it. And if you get a good realty company, they fix it fast and right. And I had one of those. So, when Jen decided we needed to buy a home, I had some preconceptions about how I’d do it.

I knew fixing stuff would cost money, so I need to watch how much we spent in monthly expenses and save some for emergency stuff. One thing I knew was that I didn’t want any extra debt like a second mortgage. But apparently, as a kid, I never understood what a second mortgage was. In my head, it was a bank giving you the value of your home…twice. (Yes, I realize this makes no sense, but teens know everything, remember?)

And apparently, I wasn’t alone because a friend recently told me they had no idea that home equity line of credit was a second mortgage when they got it. (So there… ) So when I was offered a home equity line of credit, I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Idiot.

It’s not. It’s a really dumb idea. And I was all over it.

Let’s make something really clear here. I accept the responsibility and blame for being in this mess. Ultimately, it’s my fault. But when I was digging these holes, there were many, many companies dying to hand me shovels. And whether you accept it or not (and deep down, I don’t really care if you do), they had a part as well.

The difference is that I don’t have access to TARP funds.

This blog may get a little depressing. Sorry. There really isn’t much joy in my friggin’ life these days. And this blog is a reflection of my life. So, either brace for the suck or come back in a couple months and see what happened. I will try to write well and keep you interested. It’s just the material may be a little…dark.

Without the distractions of the Internet and television at home, I certainly have ample time to look at the finances. Actually, it’s more like the finances have ample time to kick me in the nuts…repeatedly…for hours on end. At least, that’s how it feels.

I’d like to take a moment to talk about one of the reasons why this whole mess occurred. Have you ever heard of an installment loan? These things are just amazing. Imagine a ‘payday’ loan on steroids and you’re on the right track. An installment loan is where a loan place gives you an amount of money with no collateral or credit check. It’s literally just on your honor. Oh, and having a bank account.

So, what’s the big deal?

They rape you on the interest rate. I don’t like to toss the word rape around, but these rates should be considered a felony. We took one of these out when we desperately needed the car repaired. I took out $1,000. The APR is 250%.

That’s not a mistype.

The APR is 250%.

When I’m done, I will have paid them a total of $3,285, of which $2,285 is pure profit. And that’s not even the worst part. There is a sign that says the rate may be as high as 500%.

This is ridiculous.

So, if you know a mob that is restless and needs something to do, consider finding the home of an owner of one of these establishments and drag them out to the town square and stone them. Get all ‘Old Testament’ on them! Then burn their house to the ground.

There is evil in the world. And these predatory lenders prey on those who are desperate and have no other options. They are evil in its purest form.

Told you it was going to be dark…

As I’m writing this, it’s Monday evening at about 10:48pm. The timestamp on this post will not reflect that. That’s because I don’t have any Internet at home anymore. Also, this evening, they cut off the satellite television. Both of these services were provided to me by AT&T. Turns out, if you don’t pay your bill, they turn all this stuff off.

Go figure.

So, anyway, I’m writing this now and I’ll take it to work in the morning and post it. It will be weird not having that connection all the time. Weird things are already happening. Sitting in front of the computer is pretty boring without Internet. I keep launching Firefox and realizing that there isn’t any place to go. Weird.

Also, when getting ready to leave work, I kind of threw a status up on Facebook that I was going home and see you all tomorrow. And it was like, all of a sudden, people with connections at home were these elite snobs. ‘Ooooh, look at me, I can connect all the time.’ I realize that’s just my resentment.

This sucks.

And sadly, this is just the beginning. Jen continues to have medical problems. And I can’t afford the basic medicines she and the kids need. I ‘talked’ with CCCS and it was a joke. They said to talk to my lender and gave me, literally, 33 pages of crap I already know about prioritizing my expenses.

POP QUIZ!

Which of these do you NOT pay?

• Mortgage
• Your family’s medicines
• Food
• Electricity
• Gas for the car to get to work

WELL, WHICH ONE, CCCS? HUH? MOTHER*******!!! ARGHHHHHHH!!!

Okay. Better now. But you get the idea. The next step, I guess, is to call the two mortgage holders I’m behind with and the VA as well (since I have a VA loan). I really don’t want to go the b-word route. I don’t. But I will fight, tooth and nail, to not leave this house. My son just got used to his school and the last thing he needs is to be uprooted and moved somewhere else before the fall.

So, that’s where we are.

I’ve also decided to put these posts about this financial nightmare of mine into its own category on the blog. I’m calling it ‘My Giant Financial Mess‘. This will technically be the first post in it even though there were some posts prior that dealt with my money problems. This is the first where I was actually getting help (if you call the CCCS ‘help’), so it seems the logical choice.

(UPDATE: Using dial-up to post this tonight. Wow. I forgot how unbelievably slow dial-up was. Just wow. You have forgotten…)