Andain

I received a few calls just like that several months ago. Very loud, stern sounding person on the other end. I never answer the phone when I don't know the number. They stopped calling after a couple "final notices." I'm not going to "verify" anything from anyone if it's not legitimate business. This is far from legitimate. I wouldn't worry about it.

Does it really matter? Bottom line is you ain't gettin' no credix. This is half of the problem today--people and their feelings.

You should be aware that if you consolidate your student loans with the Federal program, your interest rate could jump significantly; I think it's around 8% or so. Also, the guarantor of your loans could include huge collection fees to the account when it's consolidated. The 9 month program is rehab. Anything shorter is a special payment plan that generally involves paying interest only until a lender picks up your loan for rehab or you can make "satisfactory payments," usually those that would qualify for a rehab program. If I were you, I would work something out with the lender, or if they have reached the guarantor, then them. It may take a little legwork on your part, but you'll save a lot of money in the end.

What credit scores/profile is required for the Blue Cash Preferred and Zync? I'd love to get my hands on the Blue!

I have a co-worker that is experiencing the same thing. 1. Never answer the phone. Do not deal with them. If it's the OC, they will stop after about 4 months or so and charge it off. You may wish to speak with them if you want to arrange a payment agreement, but chances are, it won't be to your liking. This is the only time you should consider talking by phone. When the debt gets charged off and goes to CA, then NEVER answer the phone, period. While they will hound you incessantly, do not answer or reply. Do not DV. Do not send a C&D. You don't want to exist except as a name on a piece of paper. If you want to pay, then do it all in writing. If you plan on BK, then it won't do you one bit of good to talk to them. They will only verify your identity and sue faster. 2. The CA's will sue for significant amounts, you can bet on that. It will take some time though, maybe 6 months, a year, maybe much longer. Not talking to them at all will buy you more time. If you are still thinking BK, do it later. You'll have time from the initial hearing to the judgement. File BK before the latter. 3. Take time and find a good BK attorney and keep their phone number at the ready. Maybe save up a few thousand to pay their retainer. They will help you a lot with options and peace of mind. One BK attorney told my coworker that he could even buy a new car before declaring, so long as it's not a nicer car than what the judge drives. The whole point is for you to buy time, as it sounds like you need it. Maybe your life situation will change. Maybe you can get back to paying. But making big decisions quickly will only hurt. In the meantime, study up here. There's tons of information.

After deciding I'm going to drive my car until the wheels fall off, I'd like to ditch the lease and move to traditional financing. I'm looking for lenders that do this. However, it would probably be a good idea to ask if I should continue paying my lease or jump to traditional financing now. The lease company says I would owe $11,100 at lease end. I project the value (auction value, not KBB) of the car based off of historical data at around $14,500, give or take $500. I have about 14 months left on the lease. My guess would be finance it now if I can get a good interest rate. I'm NOT looking to lower payments. I want it paid off ASAP. I'd like to leave this up to the experts to help me decide. If not now, for future reference, who are good lenders for something like this?

To do a rough check of your alternator, place a screwdriver behind it while running and see if it has a magnetic attraction. If it sticks, the alternator is usually good. I personally think it's your battery. However, it's always important to have both checked. If your battery is dying that fast--with no warning, it may have an internal short. Some of the cells may not be good. They tend to naturally degrade slowly over time, and you can tell by how vigorous the crank is. It will get slower and slower over time. If it shorts internally, it can discharge instantly. An alternator will not be able to recharge a shorted battery fast enough, as the flow from the alternator goes through the battery first. The higher the RPM's of the engine, the faster an alternator will charge. If you're driving around town stop and go, the alternator isn't charging fast enough, particularly if your battery is suspect.

$1000? Current box plays all the games I care about with an ATI 4670, is a dual core at 2.0G, and has plenty of ram at 4g. It's a couple years old and I have no intention of replacing it anytime soon. I think I have $350 in it noninclusive of monitor/keyboard/mouse. Computers are stupid fast so unless you're trying to play cutting-edge games on large screens or need to do intensive video editing, I don't see why anyone would pay much more than that. Disclaimer: I've been known to squeeze a buck. I bought the cpu/mb as a combo for something like $60 at fry's. Ram was on sale/rebate for like $20 or $40. If you don't shop around patiently, it'll easily be like double for the same stuff. Yes, around $1000. That's everything new, from the case and everything in it to the keyboard, mouse, and monitor. It's also an up to date one. But like I ALSO said, sometimes MUCH less. It depends on what you have, what you can reuse, and what you want to do with it. I often upgrade mine for $300-400 thereafter. It's a gaming PC, so that's on the higher side of upgrades. In many store bought models, you cannot upgrade much. A new power supply may not fit in the case, considering a new cpu is impossible without a motherboard upgrade, a new graphics card won't work to it's fullest potential because your still using an old PCIe version, you won't be able to utilize sata 3 or usb 3, etc. I do some computer repair on the side, and of all the computers I've serviced (most are relatively new HP's, my 4 year old computer will smoke them all (I have 5 PC's). My number one complaint? "My computer is slow. I think I have a virus." About half of them do. The rest are PC's that aren't designed to do what the user wants to do. So, it would be safe to say that you do not get your bang for your buck when buying a budget pre-built PC. If you want a "good" one, you're going to pay more than $1000. If your PC won't do what you want it to do (HD video editing is becoming very popular), then it's wasted money regardless of how cheap it was.

No, I have 4 charge-off's reporting from when I lost my job (only 2 cards, both dual-use CC's) and a student loan that went into default (looooong story). I've gotten my student loan worked out now and am making regular payments. It's been about 3 years since the defaults. I've had the Chase card far longer and kept it current through the mess. My goal is to improve my credit in order to get good financing terms, as I'm thinking about the future. I need better credit to purchase a house and get good financing on auto loans. I'm sick and tired of paying crappy interest rates.

Computers are rather easy to build. I've been doing it for over 15 years. It is the only way to go. Pre-built = crap. The key is having the foresight to reduce future upgrade costs, and that takes experience. First time build is always expensive but from then on, it's rather cheap and you stay up to date. You can easily build a great PC for around a $1,000, sometimes much less. Laptops are always a money sink. If you need assistance, let me know.

A few years ago I signed up for my college Alumni card, a Chase Flexible Rewards Card. I needed it to get U-Verse. I got it with a $300 limit. APR was around 8-9%. Presently, I'm still at a $300 limit but my APR is up to 20% (penalty APR.) I missed 3 payments by a day or two because I was stupid. I have not missed a payment in a long time now, probably a couple of years, and always pay more than the minimum. However, no CLI or APR reduction. I just payed it down to about $25, which will be payed off completely next month. I really don't use this card much, but I would like get a CLI and APR reduction. My credit isn't great, but this is part of my "credit recovery plan." I just payed off one of my Cap1 cards, they bumped my CLI up, and I'm about to pay off my other card. I don't think the Chase card is sub-prime, so I don't want it treated as such. Any credit rejection letters always state high credit utilization. No more! What would be the best way to handle this? I'd like to call them in the next few days, but I would like to know what to expect.

I was under the impression that balloon financing, while similar to a lease, (1) allows for ownership and is (2) easier to finance being that you pay mainly interest, which is what banks want--low payments are easy to make. I am trying to figure out a financing plan that will not allow me to ever be upside down, given the historical value of the vehicle. It's not a "plain jane" truck; it also helps that it's in mint condition with low miles. I can certainly understand the logic you all have given. It was my initial impression as well. Some sources have countered that logic with solid reasoning. I'm trying to get some sound evidence either way. I tend to make calculated decisions concerning my purchases, but this type of financing is troublesome. The whole point of balloon financing is, imo, to provide financing similar to a lease, but without the restrictions and extra fees a lease entails. In other words, I'll pay the extra sales tax, but I won't have to pay the annual property tax; I'll take ownership, but without mileage restrictions and the term fees and so on and so forth. I've seen many variants, usually when dealing with credit unions. They allow you to return the vehicle at the time the final payment is due. I'm not so sure I want to in this case. Also, there are some possibilities for tax deductions, which would be impossible with a lease. From what I currently understand, there's a fine line between balloon financing and leasing. In this particular case, I would prefer ownership over leasing. Leasing, imo, is just more expensive in the long run with too many strings attached. As previously mentioned, I currently have a lease. I'm fortunate that my residual will be far lower than auction price (if I decide to purchase then trade), but aside from that, I'm not really happy with the terms. The key here is my willingness to step up the payments in the future. I know what I'm buying and I feel that it's worth it, so I'm committed to that. The flip side on the financial end is that final payment that has to be made. I suppose I would be in the same situation as anyone else...the promise to make it.

I'm looking to get a used vehicle, a truck, as it would be handy for me to have for personal and job use. Since I currently commute, the gas mileage would be a killer. Offsetting the price of gas with a low payment would work great. My plan is for low payments for 1 year until I move (possibly sooner) much closer to work. After that, the money saved in gas will go towards making much larger payments and potentially eliminating the balloon payment altogether. Even if there's some payment left, I could easily pay cash to pay it off by then. I figure a 60 month term would be most ideal for me and a finance company. My concern is finding a lender. My credit is in the dumps (610 or so) after a student loan fiasco and a couple credit charge-off's 4 years ago after losing my job. Financially, my future prospects look very good and currently things are stable. I'm pretty sure I can get approved for standard financing. I have some equity in my current leased vehicle, about $1500. The bad thing is that I will be way over my mileage when it comes time to turn it in, so you can see why I would like to get out of it, especially while its value is high. Should I attempt dealer financing or is there someplace I could apply beforehand? I'm estimating an OTD price of around $22-23K, no down payment, and would like payments not to exceed $250 for the first year. Is this doable or even smart? Thank you!

I have recently gone through the default loan process with Texas Guaranteed. I wanted to share my experiences and advice with others. I have purposely left out financial info. Every person's situation is different. Background info: My original Stafford Loans were with Panhandle Plains in Texas. Fabulous company by the way. After some time, it was kicked out to ACS as the loan servicer. About this time, I had involuntarily lost my job and was placed on unemployment. Throughout this ordeal, I sent in 3 forbearance forms, none of which were received/acknowledged. In other words, they "had no record." I received a notice before before my loan was referred to TG, so I called PP. The CS rep referred me to another person with whom I shared my story. She did all she could and tried to hold ACS up, but time expired. Since I could not make my payments, the loan was eventually referred to TG as the collection agency/guarantor. At this time, I'm working again, but making far less and having far more bills. Early TG Collections: TG starts calling. Sometimes robocalls, sometimes a real person. Same person every time. I ignored them for a while and they sent Loan Rehabilitation letters (LR). After reading up on SL's in default, I finally decided to call and take care of this mess once and for all, confident I could take advantage of LR. Wrong. The CS rep was fairly nice, but was very set in how the account could be resolved. They either wanted an ungodly amount of money to become current, or payments I could come nowhere close to affording to enroll in the LR program. I hammered away and called many times trying to get the them to budge on the LR program--they sent me the damn letters after all! It didn't happen. The rep pressed the Direct Loan route...I was tempted. Boy was I tempted. Research: I strengthened my resolve, knowing someone was giving me the runaround, and spent an entire day on the phone. First stop, US Department of Education. The kid on the phone tried his best to help me. I told him TG was denying me the opportunity for LR. He said that they couldn't do that. It's on now! I did more online research and called back. Another rep referred me to the TG Ombudsman, Luanne Dodge. I called her and spent an afternoon with her. She was quite helpful over the course of several phone calls. She explained that the financing companies needed people who could pay a decent amount on a loan in order for TG to offload them. She also mentioned that the finance companies were just beginning to pick up more high risk loans, and that TG was working on an alternative in order to set these people up for LR. Here's what really got my attention: My particular loans are locked in a a very low rate--If I were to go to Direct Loans, my interest rate would more than double while adding another $6,000 in collection costs. Ouch! By now, I've received a notice for AWG. In my situation, that would destroy me financially and I'd be living out of my car...seriously. I really started researching how to live out of my car. Luanne Dodge to the rescue. She told me to absolutely NO MATTER WHAT fill out the paperwork that comes with the notice because it is, in fact, the paper work for alternative payment plans. With fingers crossed and a silent prayer, I dropped it in the mail--certified. Why so worried? I make a decent amount, but my bills are high (high cost of living). They somehow lost some paperwork; they called me about it and I faxed it in. The result? AWG denied. God answered my prayers. Aftermath: Shortly thereafter, I received a call from TG's special collections department, a relatively new department for TG. They are there to set you up for LR. Currently, I think there's only 2 people that work there. They listened to my concerns and offered me some options. They actually worked with me. We set up a payment that was affordable. I may only be paying interest only, but hell, at least I can deduct that from my taxes. I've called them many times and they are super nice and work with you, so well in fact I actually don't hesitate to call if I have a question. I have the number in my phone. Unfortunately, you have to go through the rest of the BS to get there. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Summary: Panhandle Plains is awesome. No paperwork, just one phonecall. ACS is comprised of complete salamanders. Initially, TG will make you hate your life. Do NOT shy away from AWG, do NOT accept Direct Loans. It's the easy way out that will cost you in the end. Utilize all possile resources and learn a companies system. Call a million times if you have to. Beat that dead horse until you get what you want. Turn the tables and annoy them. It was awesome when I heard that same CS rep get annoyed when I called and pressed over and over again. Do NOT ignore AWG warnings! Take a chance. Plead your case! Even if AWG is imminent, do NOT accept it. Get on that phone! It's not over until they begin collecting. Feel free to ask questions and I will update this. I'm a bit pressed for time atm. Hope this helps someone!

Unfortunately, I cannot.