Quick Tip: Email Reminders and Calendars

1)Use google calendar or equivalent for all of your bill due dates.
2)Make sure the due dates are the earliest possible day those bills will be due (take into account shorter months, etc).
3)Setup Email Reminders for 1 week and 3 days in advance
4)When you check your email obsessively you will never miss a bill reminder

Tadah, now get back to living your life and stop stressing about bills!

Also enroll in Auto-pay if you have a good cash buffer.

Letters of Reconsideration

A great way to get a bank to give you a second look is through letters of reconsideration.

A lot of times their system may auto-deny you without much of a good reason. This could be because of your age, number of accounts, etc. Each bank has its own standards, but they often overlook good customers because they are acting conservatively. Of course, they don't particularly care unless you take the time to tell them that you are a great customer.

Make sure when you send this letter, or one like it, that you send it via CERTIFIED MAIL. Otherwise they won't pay much attention and you will get lost in the crowd.

Here is a template that you can add or remove details from. Make sure you actually fill it out.

I have been denied for many a line of credit or credit card and after one, two or three (yes I said three!) letters of reconsideration, gotten them to approve me.

Remember, responsible people are lower risk, only responsible people send three letters of reconsideration :D

I provide no guarantees and am not liable for any repercussions that occur as a result of you using my template.

The template:


Name of Bank
Address of Bank

Hello,

I am writing requesting reconsideration of the denial of my recent Bank Name card application (case number XXXXXXX).

It appears I was denied after you pulled my TransUnion report. While the letter I received did not include specific reasons as to why I was denied, I would still like to go over the potentially negative information on my report.

Number of recent credit inquiries

I do have high credit inquiries at this time. Some of these are due to my credit report being run multiple times from the same companies that did so. I am in the process of disputing many of these anyway. Some are for refinances of already existing lines of credit. Aside from that, I am trying to build a solid credit history for myself and have applied for credit a few times only to build a solid history. Every line of credit I have ever received has been paid on time.

Insufficient length of revolving credit history

I am curious as to what length is necessary for your company as I have had revolving credit cards for X years.

Insufficient number of consumer accounts
Again I am curious as to the requirements for this as I have 7 consumer accounts ranging from several hundred dollars to several thousand. The highest being $XXXX and $XXXX.

Insufficient average credit limit on open revolving accounts

Although I do have maybe 1 or 2 cards with limits under $XXXX, the rest are of higher amounts including $XXXX, $XXXX and $XXXX.

You will notice I have no late payments, collection accounts or, general negative items on my report. I have had credit for X years with several open trade lines with perfect payment history. I am still building this history and I wish to have bank name be part of it as it will continue to be pristine. I appreciate you taking the time to reconsider my application. I hope my explanation clears things up so I can be another proud Bank name card holder and customer.



Sincerely,

Your signature in pen
Your name
Your address

Cosigning, don't do it!

Don't cosign loans for your parents and don't let them cosign for you! You shouldn't have to anyway, lenders just want to get more people on the hook!

Even if you aren't paying back a loan that your parents took out and that you cosigned or if they aren't paying one back that you took out and they cosigned. IT STILLS SHOWS UP ON BOTH OF YOUR CREDIT REPORTS.

Even if the main endorser is responsible and makes the payments on time, it still shows the loan balance on the consignors credit. Which effects your debt to income ratio and your overall credit score!

Now that is the best case scenario. The worst case is what happens if the primary on the account is late with a payment? Or if they become delinquent? That also shows up on the consignors credit!

So a word to the wise say no to cosigning.

AES Scam Continued - Electronic/Online Payments

Turns out that AES and Sallie Mae decided to put in some extra fine print when you go to make that payment online. You essentially forfeit your right to apply any extra amounts towards the principle! So your ONLY option is to mail in a check with a letter indicating that any extra amount be applied toward the principal.

What a rip off!

AES Repayment Scam - Paid Ahead Status

So when you pay more than your monthly minimum, you are thinking to yourself "I am going to save money by paying my loan off faster by making payments for more than the statement amount". Well thanks to paid ahead status, that assumption is WRONG. Other lenders may call it something different, but most of them have this stipulation in there somewhere.

So what do you do about these chicken f****** rules? Well, you could:

1) Refuse to pay all of your student loans on principle and have them destroy your credit and garnish your wages

2) Refuse to pay all of your student loans on principle and have them destroy your credit and live incognito for the rest of your life

3) Refuse to pay all of your student loans on principle and have them destroy your credit, but move out of the country and laugh at them because they CAN'T garnish your wages. And only move back when you are dead or the government has collapsed.

4) (Most realistic) - Mail in your payments by check and write a letter indicating that you want the extra amounts (make sure you state what amount is extra) to be applied towards the principal, NOT towards future payments. Also feel free to write nasty things in the memo field of your check.

Remember, STAY VIGILANT and check out the back of your student loan bills. This is what mine from AES said, but after research it turns out that Sallie Mae also states something similar.

Paid Ahead Status: When you make a payment that is greater than your monthly installment amount, the payment is credited first to satisfy any outstanding installments due and then any additional amount is applied toward future installments (and is pro-rated across all loans).

Lending Club Investing

Lending Club out performs most investments and at a risk less than traditional investments (not including CDs, Savings Accounts and Money Market). Diversification, however, is the key to maintaining low risk. Never invest large amounts in one loan, split it in $25 increments and you should be fine.

Yes lending is risky, but banks have been lending forever. If you qualify your risk properly you won’t have any problems. I'm currently looking at no defaults and net annualized return of 9.7%. Granted your results may vary, but why not play around with it for a while?

www.lendingclub.com

Credit Card Rate Increases... Fuck!

So I've received credit card rate purchase APR increase notices from:

American Express, Chase, Bank of Nevada, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, WAMU (now owned by Chase), Cabela's Card. All of these rates have increased by at least 5% and simultaneously switched to variable APRs.

All I have to say is, FUCK YOU banks and underwriters of the world. And why not? Fuck the government too! Somehow you have been able to get monies from the government (the government which is paid for by regular people like myself) while simultaneously fucking over your customers with ridiculous and in many cases unjustified (even on a risk basis) changes to your credit relationships. So you weren't happy with the money that you have made historically from encouraging people to swim in debt? You blew all the money you "earned" and didn't put anything aside for when everyone decided to stop paying you the 20% interest because they have no money left? That was poor planning on your part! But wait, who gets caught paying for you being irresponsible? The other customers that are STILL paying you and every person that pays taxes in our country.