You know who you are. You are the finance companies for the poor, the desperate, and the people who have nothing. You are not banks. You prey on people like us because you know we have no choice, and then you charge interest rates that are so high that there should be a law against it called “entrapment”. You know damn well that we can never get out of the trap without outside help (I have no help), but you sweet talk us into it anyway with what I call your “sugar devil voice”. You embarrass, humiliate, and harass us with your phone calls when we are late with a payment due to circumstances beyond our control. You are a bunch of fucking assholes and I hope your “finance company” goes bankrupt during this recession. I hate you.
—abused
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2009.
You’d be surprised how much DOESN’T happen when you stop picking up the phone just because it’s ringing.
Live within your means. Don’t borrow money you can’t pay back PERIOD! No sympathy here.
Well you can always go to Access Nova Scotia, to Orderly Payment of Debt, if you’re in hawk that much. They will look at your finances and ability to pay and either recommend to go into the OPD program or to go bankrupt. BTW it’s a free service and it works.
And you also have a mouth. Just say NO when something looks too good to be true or extremely easy credit.
Pay your goddamn bill maybe, and they won’t be calling you. You knew the interest rate when you signed up genius, unless you were too stupid to pay attention.
The ONLY thing you ever need to borrow money from anyone else………..is to buy a house. That was a period at the end there, but you gotta say it, period!
Nothing else ever constitutes a loan ‘cept a house and they’re too fucking expensive they’re kinda ruled out by default………opps, sorry, bad word, I mean ’cause it just won’t happen in this lifetime. Everything else you gotta save up for. If you can’t seem to save up for it, well honey, you can’t afford it!
This is the golden rule of solid finances that will steer you clear of financial trouble. I live by this rule and I’m doing just fine. No house mind you but zero dept……….zero! I owe nuttin’ Honey to nobody!
I have credit cards, quite a few, and have never paid a cent in interest ’cause I already have the money saved to pay them off when the bills come in. They are CONVENIENCE CARDS to me……..NOT credit cards.
I have the highest credit rating you can have, but it really doesn’t matter because I don’t use credit………..a bit ironic really.
The mistake people make is to try to budget with credit and payments. Like hey, that’s only $50 a month and that’s $75 and I can still afford another monthly payment of $20……hhmmm…….what can get for $20 a month?
The cards will come crashing down in no time!!…..Why?……’Cause shit happens!
OP, I feel your pain, sort of. I was very fortunate that I have a pretty understanding bank and government student loans, but I racked up a whole lot of credit card debt when I first graduated from school. I worked 3 crappy part time jobs while looking for a full time one in my field (funny how no one wants to promote you while looking for another job, despite the fact that you’re the best person for the position), and couldn’t afford to pay the interest on my line of credit after paying rent and buying groceries. It’s a rob-peter-to-pay-paul situation. However, it eventually got better and I got my loan repayments under control. I hope the same goes for you. I know with credit cards at least, if you can go a year without missing a minimum payment, you can usually call them and they’ll give you a lower interest rate.
What about student loans, Smee? Either you don’t have post secondary education or you had it funded and didn’t have to worry about it.
Not all of us have the luxury of affording post secondary education on our own….so loans it is. I think that’s a perfectly acceptable reason to borrow money.
However, I agree with the rest of your post — wayyyyyy too many people are living off of credit these days. This bitch in front of me in the line up at the grocery the other day was using a credit card to pay for a piece of salmon. I got a look at the card too and it wasn’t a rewards type of card either.
Whatever happened to saving and paying in cash for things? That’s all my parents have ever done and they have some pretty nice shit and they don’t/didn’t make tons of money (their salaries are mid middle class). They just went without until they could afford to pay cash. Thing about THAT is, once you have the money you go in, pay for it and THAT’S IT. It’s yours. You don’t have to worry about payments or other kind of shit, and you don’t have to worry about paying shittons in interest.
And depending on what you’re buying, you can often get a deal if you pay in cash. When my parents bought their new living room set last August they got almost $500 off and taxes included in the price because they had cash.
Careful with the presumptions there, kitty. When the banks decided they aught to apply transaction charges for using the debit card one too many times I quickly changed my spending habits. There’s NOTHING I need cash for save for a few shitty bars that don’t take credit or debit. I also have a sweet deal with the credit card company in that I can write a “purchase cheque” which is handled the same way any credit card purchase is handled and is not a daily-interest-bearing cash advance. So, EVERYTHING gets purchased on the credit card, melons and all, and every month the card is paid down in full. No interest and no extraneous transaction charges from the bank either. I have money come in, it gets divided between savings and the credit card. I call it, unlimited banking. Fuck RBC. They’re bastards.
Not so long ago getting financing to purchase a car wasn’t so easy and people rarely did it. Financing from the store to buy furniture? I mean, we’ve had department store credit cards for a long time but now we have furniture companies that are really credit/finance companies so that tells you a little about our penchant to save then spend. Oh, and look at that. The entire world market just collapsed as a result of…. over extended credit. Go figure.
Oh yeah, kudo’s to kitty re: student loans. Graduating from student to unemployed-with-hefty-loan is a real eye opener for some but it usually can’t be avoided, like she said.
Well Kay, if one actually finishes their degree or gets a useful one, the loan is worth it. I had no trouble getting a job after university or paying off my loan and I make more money, in my chosen field, than I would have without it. Education, at whatever level, is an investment. The key is, it is YOUR hard work and choice of degree that determine the market value of that investment. A lot of people make bad investments when they invest in themselves.
I thought the loan was worth it too. Got a great job out of school. It lasted for a year. The loan lasted much longer.
That’s not to say the education didn’t endure *wink*
Yeah, it does take a while to pay back…but so does a mortgage. Hopefully the education can put you into an income bracket where you can afford both. *fingers crossed*
Kay “Not so long ago getting financing to purchase a car wasn’t so easy and people rarely did it.”
Pray tell us how people paid for their cars… Cash ??? LOL..
Once again you are talking out your ass you moron…
Shop around for lower interest rates. Sit down with the banks and let them know that you’re being harassed for payments you can not afford. Work to get a rate that you can afford; then, shop that rate around and see if another bank goes lower or matches with better terms and conditions. When presenting yourself to the bank, try to ‘come off’ as someone who is responsible, just in a financial slump. We’ve all been there.
To everyone here that thinks that credit is the devil: guess what? Credit runs world. Unless you have cash in your hand, it’s just dots on a page. Christ, even this “quantitative easing” that the government is doing is just flooding the system with credit. Credit is all about self restraint and good budgeting. It’s a hard thing to do, but it can be worth it. But as with all things, people tend to get in trouble. Maybe if the OP had realized they were in worse shape earlier, they would be able to get a loan to consolidate at a better interest rate.
Oh Floyd, you poor idiot. One used to have to get a bank loan or cozy up to a “loan shark” to pay for a car if they didn’t save up and purchase it outright. It used to be if you needed financing that was your problem, not the guy who tries to sell you a car. Things have changed. Open a fucking history book or, better, LISTEN when your parents and grandparents speak, you ignorant little puke.
did I say “little”? I digress. There’s nothing little about Floyd except “her” IQ and that much is obvious