CubRunner

Got approved for my first card in about two years as I have been working hard on my credit scores. Not much, but I got a Home Depot card for $1,000. The plan is to buy a new dishwasher, pay it off in two months and let that sit there for an emergency and improve my credit usage.

I found the money management forums. Thanks for the recommendation. Reading through the stickies now.

No, I haven't read those yet. I just looked for the money management forum and couldn't locate it. My budget is pretty tight as my escrow was underfunded last year (our first year in our first home) so now my mortgage payment is increasing by almost $300. I think that is the thing that is making me most nervous. That and rising utility bills over the summer (I'm in southeast Texas and it has been brutal). I started doing some freelance work online to bring in some extra income each week, but it is inconsistent and not sure how long it will last. Sounds like this belongs more in the money management forum. If I can find that I will post over there for sure. My end goal is to be more conscious of where my money is going and stop living the paycheck to paycheck life ASAP.

Over the past six months or so I've gotten myself into a bad spot with my credit. It's not as bad as it could be, but I'm struggling with where to go from here. I don't feel I can pay all of my credit card bills currently and I want to start the process of rebuilding over the next few years. Where I'm at: A couple months ago I made a really dumb decision. I had an unexpected emergency come up and not enough funds to cover it, so I took out an expensive line of credit. Now my bi weekly payment is over $200 and I don't feel I can make these payments on top of my other credit card payments. This line of credit is the major thing I am struggling with paying as it is mostly fees I am paying to each payment, not the principle. It was an impulse decision and an incredibly dumb one. This is how my credit breaks down currently: Net Credit - Balance is $3,700 - Bi weekly automatic payments currently at $215 Discover Card 1 - Balance is $5,944 - Current payments are around $140-$150 - This card has been closed since 2019 and I have been making automatic monthly payments. This month I am going to miss my payment for this first time since 2019. - I have worked the balance down from $7,000. Discover Card 2 - Balance is $1,359 - Current payments are about $40-$50 - Same as Discover card above. Closed in 2019 and I have been making automatic payments since. I missed last months payment, and it was the first missed payment since then. - I have worked this balance down from $2,500 American Express Blue - Balance is $2,100 of a $2,000 limit - I am behind two months on payments here as of last week, however, I have set up a payment plan with them. This is the card I am hoping to keep. - Payment plan has this card at $60 a month. Capital One Platinum - $500 balance of a $500 limit - Current payments are $25. - Current on payments and will continue to be. I'm just not sure how to proceed here. The Net Credit is what is drowning me. I can't continue to pay that much every two weeks with the balance barely decreasing, but I am also afraid of what such a predatory LOC looks like when I start missing payments. Any advice here is much appreciated as I try to get my credit into better shape over the next few years. I don't have much of anything to use it for currently as I have a mortgage and a car loan, but I want this burden gone in case there is a need in the near future it will be there for me.

Long story short I reached a settlement with Portfolio Recovery back in February and am scheduled to make my final payment today, Memorial Day. They are closed today to observe the holiday, and their website is under scheduled maintenance. Am I going to be OK calling and paying tomorrow? I know it may sound like a silly question, but I want this to be done and over, with no hiccups.

OK everyone, finally have an update! First update is COVID absolutely wrecked me for a whole week. It was insane. Second update on the car: I went to the dealership numerous times, tried calling the finance director, emailed...crickets. They forgot about me 100%. I woke up on Saturday, the last day of the month, and told my wife "betcha they call me today!" Sure enough the second financier calls me to talk about what we're exactly doing, like he doesn't know. I said "It's really simple. You guys know where I need to be on price, you guys slipped warranties into my pricing, I found out, now what we're doing is making it right by me. The only way I'm signing papers that include warranties of any kind are if I'm not paying for them, because that's how they were presented to me. Also, I need to be at the rate from CAP1 that you gave me with the warranties." He started going in to his spiel about how the only reason I was able to get to that rate was because of the warranties, but he was able to get a deal with WF at 10%. I cut him off and said "my man...you can tell me that bullshit until you're blue in the face. I know you're lying. Also, you told me at the time of the original signing that you only had two offers. Now you're telling me about other ones that were available at the time less than the absurd 13.99%? Make it happen or I drive up there today, park this car, bring the keys in and get my $7,500 back." He then stated "well, we have a contract on the vehicle sir..." I said "oh, you mean the one you told me the finance director was able to unwind so we could start over? So you're lying to me about that as well. Cool. I'm gonna hang up the phone. Don't call me back until you have a deal that is satisfactory." He called me back around 6:00 PM (the first call was around 9:00 AM) to tell me he was able to get me back to CAP1 at the 7.99% with GAP and the upgraded warranty, no windshield warranty. I told him I absolutely wasn't paying for those warranties. He then let me know the finance director told him to make a deal on the car by reducing the vehicle price by the warranty and GAP amount, PLUS an additional $1K because of what I've been through. I told him I would come in on Monday (today) morning and sign the contract once I was able to review it. So this morning I show up and the finance director greets me and says he's fully taken over the deal. I go into his office and I tell him what I was told over the phone. He said "absolutely. He put you through way too much bullshit over wanting to sell some warranties which (and @MarvBear you'll LOVE this) you probably would have bought if he was honest with you in the first place. Now he's out of a deal, we are out $6K which we don't really care about if it makes you happy, and you had a LOT of time wasted. Does this deal work for you?" I looked it over and everything looked great. I said "absolutely, let's sign it and get it done." He was even more pissed because THE DUDE DIDN'T CALL CAP1 AND UNWIND THE ORIGINAL DEAL LIKE HE TOLD BOTH OF US! I asked "where is he anyways?" Dude smirked and said "he's not here wasting anyone's time. That's all that matters." 😮 I really gained my confidence back in this dealership after spending some time with the finance director, the GM, and knowing that they don't put up with that kind of BS and actually care about their reputation. Also, the service manager is top notch. When they replaced that thermostat thing, he had them go ahead and replace my fuel line because they had to remove it for the part install and didn't want to risk it, AND ordered me a new subwoofer. I asked why and he said "I know this year of this model had some issues with it and I want you to be happy, so just in case I'm ordering one and whenever you have some time stop by and we will replace it for you." So now, thanks to all of you, I have a reasonable (but still a little high) car payment and free bumper to bumper warranty for 100K/7 years on a vehicle I absolutely love. Thank you all for all of the help! I seriously would have been beyond lost without the guidance! Now if the birds could stop crapping on my moon roof that would be nice.

Gotcha. Makes sense. My original guy tried the four square thing with me to justify the warranties.

Haven't done it yet. The car is getting the thermal valve replaced and won't be ready until Friday it looks like. I'm waiting on them to let me know, so I'll probably check in tomorrow if I don't hear from them. Finance manager seems more willing to make things right. If they don't get to what I want, give me my down payment back and I'll go somewhere else. Because I believe I'm way beyond sounded stupid, why not ever let them know you are a "payment buyer?"

Thanks for the well wishes. I believe the worst is behind me. It was really bad for a day and now it’s simmering down. I agree they should have, but I was exhausted. He seems more determined to help me out so I’m taking that with a grain of salt. I’ll update once we get it all figured out in a few days.

QUICK UPDATE: So yesterday afternoon I walk in to the busy dealership and my financier sees me walk in and asks what he can do for me. I calmly, but loudly enough for everyone around me, say "I bought my car two days ago and my check engine light is already on, on top of everything else I've been though in 48 hours now I have this to deal with." He immediately apologizes and gets the GM. She comes over and I lay it all out for her. I let her know that I was never told the pricing on any of these warranties and was lead to believe they were being thrown in for me. I was also never told that my CPO Subaru came with a 7 year 100K mile power train warranty. I let her know that they were going to find a way to make this right, or Stacey Gillman and Subaru North America would. They checked my car and thankfully it was just a thermo valve which is being replaced on Monday. While they were checking on this, the GM had the finance manager come speak with me. He asked, very simply "what is going to make you happy? Because that's all I care about and I am going to do whatever it takes to make that happen." I told him that I needed the lowest monthly payment available, and that I made it very clear that was my goal from the get go. I let him know that it became apparent to me that it was not taken into consideration when I saw that even with the ridiculously high interest rate from the other bank and no extra warranties, that my payment would have been $41 less. He said he heard that loud and clear and said he was going to work on what we can do with just me first, and if it works out to something that is more reasonable, then great. If not, we can look at my wife cosigning. @MarvBear Not sure if you recall, but we talked about the two old apartment collections that fall of due to SOL in August. Well they came off yesterday! My score only went up about 5 points, but my wife's went up 47 and now her TU is in the mid 600's. He then came back and told me he CANCELLED THE ORIGINAL LOAN! SUPER happy to hear that but I didn't show it. He then let me know "so the good news is we're starting over fresh. Not so good news is we have to wait a few days because it's a holiday weekend and I am waiting on CAP1 to confirm with me that they received payment back from us. Now, the other good news is, you get to keep the car for now, and at the end of the day if your not happy and you go somewhere else, at least you got a decent rental for a week." He then let me know he was waiting on CAP1 because they initially gave me the lowest APR, confirming that I didn't need these bullshit warranties. So I already know that even if it comes back at that 7.99% it would already be $6,900 LESS because of all the insurances. Thank you all for the help and hopefully I have another good update midweek! Oh, and I tested positive for COVID today and I'm pretty sure its due to all this stress wearing me down.

I'm not gonna lie. The one good thing to come out of this is this forum thread!

I really want to at this point. But like I said before the big thing holding me back is needing a car. If the car is fine (i.e. very minor issue with the check engine light), and they resolve these other issues I am good. They took my kindness as weakness and now they're going to see the fruit of their labor.

That's exactly who I am asking to speak with when I walk in this afternoon.

HOLY SH*T! They basically upgraded me to the bumper to bumper extended warranty without even telling me it included the powertrain! F this man. Thank you for sending me this! I want my freakin $500 credit so I can buy one of those bougie top racks I'll never use.

The car still has one year and about 11K miles on the original warranty. They better hope it's something extremely minor, because I am definitely in a mood to cause a scene.