ya know what I think it is...sadly....
they think "hey, if we're goin under, we're takin AS MANY w/us as possible"
(sorry, no time ta spell ck....typin on the fly here)
I totally agree w/you (what else is new).....how on earth in this enviornment can any financial institution see it a wise idea to not only raise rates but then to also for all intensive purposes cut off most all lines of credit. Foklks can't spend even IF they have great credit (like us) & if they do decide to spend a bit.....we get reamed up da wazoo in fee's & rates. What good are low rates if thery aren't approving people?
Here's my experience the past 48 hrs.....1st a lil background...in mid '03 (when times were better of course) I leased a fairly new (Dealer Demo that had 5K on the odom) 03 4 Runner V8 4 wheel drive Sport Edition....the model right under the top of the line model (which is The Limited)...is pretty much loaded w/everything except leather & GPS...very nice ride.
I leased it (a 5 yr...not 3 yr lease) b/c of course it kept the payments on the low side & I had always planned to buy it outright once the lease term was up....which I did last summer. I put it on a Wells Fargo CC...was given a 0% bal transfer for 6 mos from Wells who we have a GREAT history with...a coupla mortgages & an equity line that have always been in good standing....have NEVER even so much as been late for a payment w/them...EVER!! & no, our equity line dint even come close to tapping out all our equity in our primary. Even in today's r/e mrkt...when you consider the equity line combined w/the principal we still owe, the home still has apporx 375-400K in untapped equity. So you'd think we'd be sitten pretty as far as credit goes, right? Nope!!
Last summer when I had to purchase the car outright at the end of the lease...the obvious way to go was to increase the equity line by approx 20K (there was 17K on the car)...nothin right? Wrong again....Wells wouldn't go for that for some reason? I didn't get it at the time b/c all I was doin was trading one $300/mos payment for another....not increasing our overhead or anything like that....actually, it would have been LOWERING our overhead b/c of the write off we woulda rec'd since it was gonna be off the heloc. A no brainer....but no go. So I said fine...give me that 6 mos 0% bal tranfer (didn't even have ta pay the 3% b/c the 1st bal transfer was free being that it was on a new line of credit....approx 25K) you've been floodin my mail box with for the past few yrs & I'll worry about it in 6 mos. So I continued to pay $300/mos every month like clockwork for the 6 mos (minimum payment was approx $160) & now the bal is down to 15K & the rate is an adjustable that's sitten @ 7.65%.
So I figure OK....I'll simply re-fi to a secured used car loan thru a local credit union thaty we have an impecible record with....back in '04 we bought a brand new Saturn L300 for the Mrs. A very nice/safe family car...front & side airbags...almost the top of the line model for that yr. A yr ago we sold that car to her parents (gave'em a deal of course so we took a slight bath...but hey, it's fam right) & replaced it w/my dad's top of the line '03 Murano that still to this day is covered under an extended 100K warranty (has approx 62K on the odom).....has GPS, leather seats, front seat warmers (absolutely LOVE that for the back) all the bells 'n whistles...so we thot tradin a just out of warranty '04 w/less miles on it for a slightly older car but w/more bells 'n whistles & still under warranty was a good idea...+ we are payin pops 0% interest....a slam dunk idea....which it was.
OK.....back to the 4Runner....so here we are w/1 car payment @ 0% to pops (Murano) & the 4 Runner now on an unsecured line of credit. Enter the 2 rentals up in Reno.....this is why I think we're bein messed with but the lenders of credit aren't sayin so. We're up to date (alawys have been) on all the pamyents up there & there's been no missing of any payments since '03 when we bought the 1st rental (#2 was in '05 & was a lease option to purchase contract from tenants #1 in the 1st home from '03..for which they've since bailed on & have moved out) so on paper as far as payments go, everything is all hunky dory as far the banks should be concerned. In fact considering everything that's been goin on, they should be completely ecstatic!! Sure we're a bit (not much) under water after being up over 100K in equity at one point...but still, bein down approx 35-50K in equity isn't hurtin too much...not at all. In fact we were able to secure home #2 (the lasee option for tenants in home #1) by simply using the equity from home #1 over the 2 yr period from '03-'05 to use as a down payment for home #2....jus playin a lil live Monopoly like most everyone else back in those days.
Anyway....here we are w/great credit...albeit it was in the high 700's & at last check this week it was down to the mid 700's...still quite good in these times.....but what good is outstanding credit when ya can't even tap into it? We've never been late with ANY payments...cc, mortgage, cars, utilities...NOTHING!! In fact, I have no idea why we went down from the high 700's (780's I think it was) back in '03-04? Thinking maybe they've lowered us b/c of a slight increase in outstanding cc debt. Back in '03-'04 we were around 4-5K in revolving debt....now it's doubled but not unmanagable by any stretch. In fact yuo'd think the CC's would LOVE us b/c we are on time & are of course paying them their interest. I also think that they've lowered us b/c they see 3 mortgages & a 150K heloc that has approx 20% left that's untapped. You may ask why then don't ya use that to pay for the 4 Runner? Those funds are for the rentals to weather any storms (which we're kinda just goin thru now...lookin for a tenant w/no nibbles yet in home #2 & home #1 we'll be lookin for new tenants to occupy in June. I like to have a cushion there in the event we have trouble finding a good app. Since '03 however, I think we've had maybe 5 days total of vacancy.....& that's just b/c I needed a day for the carpets to dry...not b/c there wasn't a tenant. We've never had any trouble finding tenants...& in this mrkt you would think w/everyone losing their homes that it wouldn't be too hard to occupy rentals..& it hasn't been....til now. 2 weeks on the mrkt (Craigslist) & not one nibble....tho this time of yr up there not many folks are lookin to mover...so we may have to wait another mos or 2...hopefully not any longer than that.
Anyway....that's where we're at....nothing too bad...in fact considering I think we're lucky compared to most who're holding a rental prop or 2...not down by much & a real good credit history...yet the "man" doesn't wanna play nice w/us....& if he continues to play this way....he just may find that he wont be gettin 1 red cent of what we owe him....if we declared banko & or decide to leave the keys on the counter one day....then we'll have no car or cc payments left....I can easily put up w/7 yrs of trashed credit & living well w/in our means if this is how they wanna play.
Indeed, it makes no sense to me....you would think they'd wanna work with us....especially those who've been paying & continue to play by the rules....instead, they wanna make it harder on us just b/c it's gettin harder on them. it aint our fault they took the path they did....& further more, they're gettin help from the govt....are we? Tphhhfffttt!!!
Seems to me they're gettin ALL the assistence & not allowing it to trickle down....we can't even get a pissant 15K used car loan....what BS!!
Oh & in case you were wondering....even tho we're a 1 income household, the bread winner here grosses a lil over 75K/yr....& just got a 4% raise effective this month & retro'd from last June ta boot. You would think that would be more than enough.....but living in Cali sure don't help the cause either....but if not for where we live, we also wouldn't have nearly the equtiy we do....we bought our primary (1st home) 14 yrs ago in Jan of '95 (moved in on Super Bowl Sunday.....9'ers v SD) for 315K & it's now around 800K...was up to 875 at its' high....still, considering, it's held it's value quite well thru all of this BS....& I don't expect it to go down from here more than another 10-15%.
Tho I know the CaT has another view.....but he don't know our micro mrkt here where we live...we happen to be in a very tight locale.....school rankings in the upper 90%, etc....a very sought after locale so putting us on a natl ave chart has not proved to be a very good model to go by...we've certainly been lucky to have bucked the natl trends as far as a bottom falling out...& most local r/e experts & Pundits are in agreement....we seem to be near or at the bottom of all this....same for Reno....which is NOT Vegas....that's been Reno's bug-a-boo in all this.....they tend to get lumped in with Vegas which is not right....Reno is their own mrkt & is not connected in any way w/the Vegas mrkt....Vegas is pretty much as far away as you can get from Reno while remaining in NV....yet Reno has gotten punished b/c of the Vegas build out over the past decade or so. This also explains why Reno hasn't bottomed nearly as bad as Vegas.....Reno is off maybe 20-25%...Vegas closer to 50%....& W/out the Vegas factor I think Reno would be down maybe just 10-15%...tphhfftt!!
OK....I saved my rant for the wknd.....lolololol
Anyone know of anyone who wants to provide a simple used car laon for 15K let me know....& it wont be increasing our overhead.....just keeping it the same....tho it seems the man wants desperately to increase our overhead so he can take us down w/him....have I said....tphhhffftttt!!! yet? :0
Gotta run.....I feel maybe a lil better tho now that I got this off my chest...lol
