Sunday, March 18, 2007
I guess big banks not being friendly isn't true
I've always had this preconceived notion that big banks are not friendly or "forgiving" as small-town banks. And with most of my experiences it has been true. But that all changed this past week and it's going to help me get out of debt even quicker. Or at least I hope it will.
Thursday I received my monthly statement from my former bank for my line of credit. Instead of showing the usual regular $90 minimum payment being due, it showed that the entire $3,500 was due in full by the 25th of March. I was worried and pissy all Thursday night and most of Friday morning before I went up to the bank to talk about it.
Back story to the line of credit is that I applied for it when I thought I wanted to get out of debt in 2005. I had a theory that I was just going to roll all my debt into one big account. It even came with a 2 year maturity date. I thought it had a 3 year maturity date which is why I was confused as to why the entire debt was to be paid off now.
So I head up to the local branch and explain my situation to the first dude that came out to help me. He thought it was quite odd that a line of credit had a maturity date because the ones they give people now are basically treated like a credit card, you pay it down to a zero balance. I explained to him that it was with the bank that they took over so that's why it was probably different. He offered to see if we could refinance it. I agreed as it looked like my only hope. We submitted the application and I went on my merry way as it would take a couple of hours to find out. I knew without a doubt I would be denied as my credit utilization is very high. He called me back within 20 minutes to tell me I was denied and gave me the number to personal loans to see what could be done because basically it would just go to collections.
Long story short, I talked to 4 people for 14 minutes telling the same story over and over until finally I got transferred to the right person that was very helpful and said well I'm sure my manager can just provide an override for this and we can approve the refinance. I was very relieved.
Later at work I received a call from the guy at the branch to tell me the latest news that they were willing to work with me as long as they could get a firm commitment to pay this off and they would need some type of down payment. I had some extra cash in my emergency fund that was over $1000 so I put in for a transfer to take place so I could make about a 20% down payment. I plan on getting this paid off ASAP as was the original plan as this is the only credit I have that is over 10% on interest. Now this just provides extra "incentive" to get it done now.
Moral of the story: If you're going to be going to collections, it never hurts to explain your situation to them just to see if there is absolutely anything that can be done. I've always read articles about doing that but never thought it would actually matter. But apparently it does.
Thursday I received my monthly statement from my former bank for my line of credit. Instead of showing the usual regular $90 minimum payment being due, it showed that the entire $3,500 was due in full by the 25th of March. I was worried and pissy all Thursday night and most of Friday morning before I went up to the bank to talk about it.
Back story to the line of credit is that I applied for it when I thought I wanted to get out of debt in 2005. I had a theory that I was just going to roll all my debt into one big account. It even came with a 2 year maturity date. I thought it had a 3 year maturity date which is why I was confused as to why the entire debt was to be paid off now.
So I head up to the local branch and explain my situation to the first dude that came out to help me. He thought it was quite odd that a line of credit had a maturity date because the ones they give people now are basically treated like a credit card, you pay it down to a zero balance. I explained to him that it was with the bank that they took over so that's why it was probably different. He offered to see if we could refinance it. I agreed as it looked like my only hope. We submitted the application and I went on my merry way as it would take a couple of hours to find out. I knew without a doubt I would be denied as my credit utilization is very high. He called me back within 20 minutes to tell me I was denied and gave me the number to personal loans to see what could be done because basically it would just go to collections.
Long story short, I talked to 4 people for 14 minutes telling the same story over and over until finally I got transferred to the right person that was very helpful and said well I'm sure my manager can just provide an override for this and we can approve the refinance. I was very relieved.
Later at work I received a call from the guy at the branch to tell me the latest news that they were willing to work with me as long as they could get a firm commitment to pay this off and they would need some type of down payment. I had some extra cash in my emergency fund that was over $1000 so I put in for a transfer to take place so I could make about a 20% down payment. I plan on getting this paid off ASAP as was the original plan as this is the only credit I have that is over 10% on interest. Now this just provides extra "incentive" to get it done now.
Moral of the story: If you're going to be going to collections, it never hurts to explain your situation to them just to see if there is absolutely anything that can be done. I've always read articles about doing that but never thought it would actually matter. But apparently it does.
Labels: collections, debt
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