I've always been the type of guy to never borrow or loan money unless I can pay/get it back asap. Especailly since I don't like to rely on people for things and seem needy, I guess you could say i'm 'too proud' or whatever but I just like to be independant so that I control my fate, and not answer to other people for shit I owe. So In other words I've always been pretty good about saving money and controlling my budget. Over the course of the last several months I have been getting quartered and fifty-cent pieced (not just nickels and dimes) just about everywhere.
I'll start back in like Dec.08'
Banco Popular
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My original bank account went overdraft for like 30 cents from something I bought on debit that didn't go through right away, so they charged me a 25$ OD fee. 2 days later I sold something on ebay and then the guy renegged and took his money back, ebay charged me some cents on the auction, another 25$ fee. At the same time Blockbuster online had offered me a free renewal 2 week online rental thing. They fucked that up and charged me 20$, another 25$ OD. Then Before all these fees even showed up I checked my bank account on like a Saturday and it showed X amount which I factored that I had enough to buy a chicken sandwich from Jack in the Box. Nope, another 25$ fee.
So, I hassled with blockbuster for a long while getting them to reverse the money which they fucked up on. Tried to get the receipt to JitB with some cash to reverse the debit card and make it cash instead (couldn't find the receipt though). Called ebay and told them the guy screwed me over but they couldn't take off their stupid 10 cent fee or change it to another payment method. And I would just take the hit of the original OD even though it is bullshit imo.
I went down to the bank and told them I can't pay all the fees and told them to lock/close my account. They told me they can't and won't on a negative balance. I told them I can't pay it for at least another week when I get paid and all the 25$ charges for minor cents were bullshit. They told me to call the hotline and I did. They told me to go into my bank, lol.
So I called the bank back and told them to close my account to prevent the daily OD fee of 5$ that lasts 25 days and then the account automatically closes anyways. I tried to explain to them that they would pay the money if they closed it now, but if they don't i'm not paying a cent. (I owed like 70-100$ and it would eventually become around 200$). They said the same shit and I basically told them to fuck off.
A few weeks later I got a thing in the mail that said my account was 0 balance which was odd. I never got a call from collection agency or anything like that. Who knows maybe I still owe this debt and it's fucking with my credit.
But technically, I still think I owe like 200$ there.
So, I hassled with blockbuster for a long while getting them to reverse the money which they fucked up on. Tried to get the receipt to JitB with some cash to reverse the debit card and make it cash instead (couldn't find the receipt though). Called ebay and told them the guy screwed me over but they couldn't take off their stupid 10 cent fee or change it to another payment method. And I would just take the hit of the original OD even though it is bullshit imo.
I went down to the bank and told them I can't pay all the fees and told them to lock/close my account. They told me they can't and won't on a negative balance. I told them I can't pay it for at least another week when I get paid and all the 25$ charges for minor cents were bullshit. They told me to call the hotline and I did. They told me to go into my bank, lol.
So I called the bank back and told them to close my account to prevent the daily OD fee of 5$ that lasts 25 days and then the account automatically closes anyways. I tried to explain to them that they would pay the money if they closed it now, but if they don't i'm not paying a cent. (I owed like 70-100$ and it would eventually become around 200$). They said the same shit and I basically told them to fuck off.
A few weeks later I got a thing in the mail that said my account was 0 balance which was odd. I never got a call from collection agency or anything like that. Who knows maybe I still owe this debt and it's fucking with my credit.
But technically, I still think I owe like 200$ there.
I got a couple parking tickets in this month as well, 1 for 35$ for 1 hour parking near my job and I didn't see the sign obstructed by trees (sometimes there is no where to park at all too, this is a racket). And the other was for a Street Sweeping ticket 40$ at my house which comes twice a week, every week. So 8 times a month, it's pretty easy to make a mistake and it's all a numbers game, because my street is not that fucking dirty. this too is a racket.
Tickets must be payed within 21 days or they double or whatever.
Jan.-Jul.09'
Car
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New year rolled around, need to get registration and the insurance expired on the vehicle. I don't own the pink slip yet so I figured I'd wait a couple months til the car is payed off (owed like 250$ still to mom's bf which I had been paying on 100$ monthly) and handle all the shit at once because it'll be easier and I can take just 1 day off and get it all handled instead of taking off multiple days and visiting the dreaded DMV more than I have to.
This was a great plan except in February a cop stopped me and wrote me a fix-it ticket for my expired registration. I explained the whole situation and that I just bought the car and was going to do it this next week on my day off. Meanwhile the icecream and groceries were going warm and melty.
I got another SS ticket in Feb. which I had to pay and I put off the whole Car thing because with the next check I needed to pay rent and bills. I got another ticket for SS in March when I was sure I parked on the correct side. It gets kind of confusing when you need to park on one side on Wednesday night for Thursday morning and then the opposite Thursday night for Friday morning. So I read my calendar wrong for Thurs night thinking it was Thurs morning. And then other than that It's just the last thing on my mind to keep track of which side of the damned street to not park on when I've had a long day. So needless to say, I put off the DMV thing again.
Then my car needed some mild maintenance like oil change and shit, so I had to take care of that instead of the DMV stuff yet again. At this point I now don't have enough savings anymore and need even more time.
I probably got another parking or SS ticket in the month of April, At this point I am calling them my 'monthly parking tax/fee'.
Fast forward to May and now I have wised up, or more accurately; 'Fearing for my life every time I park'. But this time it's for an Expired Registration Illegal Parking Ticket which is 60$.
About a week later I go to some retarded wherehouse party with a bunch of highschool kids and no beer with a security checkpoint at the door.. As soon as we see this, we leave. I was parked literally 5 minutes and received ANOTHER Expired ticket because there was all the sudden like 10 cops roamin around this tract. Fucking BS.
A week later I start to go to work and realize I have a flat from all these old nails and shit. The tire is beyond repair and I need to get a new one and change it myself (fuck up my hands pretty bad on the tire iron in the process), bit of a run around places wanting 80$ but finally find a place to sell me a used tired for 25$.
So yea, in June, I Finally breakdown and start asking family and friends for money I can borrow. Everyone else is broke (ofc) and my mom ends up hocking rings and borrowing money herself in order to help me. I feel bad about it, especially because she didn't tell me that's what she was gonna do until after she did it. She also got a new insurance plan with my sister and I could add to it for like 55$ a month. But by now the tickets are too old to be reduced and in fact have added late fees so they are like 80$. I don't have time/money to take off to even handle the registration and shit at this point, so It's still not enough. My mom does the DMV shit for me and it costs more because it's late and to top it off it only lasts until the normal renewal date (Jan 2010). So you pay more for less.. I think it was like 160$ So I had to pay another 50$ to get it smogged first, which is also bullshit because my car isn't that fucking old where it won't pass.
Later that month I get a letter stating that I have a 1700$ bail for a ticket and my license will be suspended August 22nd. I call them and have no clue what it is for since I payed all the tickets (at least in part) that I have gotten. They can't tell me shit but make me a court date for Oct 8th.
Turns out the fix-it ticket which I assumed was just a warning actually turned into some fine that I wasn't aware of that eventually went to a criminal thing. I'm hoping the judge will give me a payment plan or community service or some shit but I don't know it could be jail time when you add the next story.
And I didn't even mention the ridiculous gas prices that have been going on. I only get 17mpg, drive about 10 miles a day but it still rapes like 40-50$ out of my wallet every month. And I really wished I could have done the 'cash for clunkers' thing (not eligible due to ownership less than a year, plus no extra cash to make monthly payments right now anyways). Totally bad timing on that.
Sept.09'
Fender Bender
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Like 2 weeks ago I was leaving work after a long day and really fucking hungry (I generally don't eat at work because I just can't afford it anymore). The parking lot I park in has those slanted parking stalls on both sides like:
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and it's really narrow and people around here all seem to have huge SUVs and trucks which make it even hard to drive through the center lane. So I'm pulling out trying not to hit the car to my left (which is parked obnoxiously close, to the point where I could barely get in the door.) Behind me is a long truck, and a camry or something that only pulled in like 90% of the way. So as I'm trying to reverse without slicing the left car and still enough space to turn because i'm basically going straight back out. I end up clipping the back right fender of this 06' caddy OTS/CTS? which makes a sickening crunch. I pull back forward and the chick is coming out with her to go order. (omfg, why couldn't I have left work 20 seconds later)
She seemed relatively annoyed but kept cool about it. The whole thing was weird because I am pretty much zoned out at this point from hunger, the whole situation and my life, and I had never gotten into any kind of accident before. Even stranger when she was using my window to write, a really big ass fucking spider came off the top of the car. We exchanged information and she said her insurance would call mine (which I didn't know was expired due to suspended license).
Later I tried to find out if I could still get coverage and sign up for some other insurance (because my old one won't reinstate me) but that would cost a lot to sign up and the guy said no insurance agency in the world would cover it anyways. So I said fuck it. I tried to call her a few times to see if I can get her to go get a few estimates and I could pay for the repairs but she never picked up. I was afraid to leave a voice mail because she could possibly use it in court against me if it gets to that point.
The dent is about the size of two fists if you hulk smashed into the fender with a white line in it. It's not that bad but I'm thinking it would still cost 500$+ to repair..
So yea, what the hell should I do?
Looking at all my problems throughout the last 9 months it has been 100% car related. In order to remove this problem I am selling this fucker.
Is it cursed? Do I have the worst luck ever? Am I just not financially responsible? I don't know, but what I do know is that this PoS is only going to end up costing me more money. I'll have to pay a bunch of shit to get my license reinstated, sign up for some more insurance, pay that monthly, pay for rising prices in gas, oil changes, unforseen repairs, renew the registration in a few months AGAIN, blah blah.
My mom/gma doesn't want me to get rid of the van though because she needs to use it often. And it still is in pretty good condition (other than the external look) considering its like 15 years old and only has 81,000 miles on it.
I already signed the pink slip over to my mom, she said she is going to take a loan out based on the car and pay me with that money (the 2000$ i payed for it), I hope this works out.
extra:
Taxes and Wages
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Another primary source of my problems has been my employer. At first I was working under the table and making 9$ an hour for like 30-35 hours 6 days a week. This compares to something like 12$/h taxed. Which is ok. The problem though is that my boss is always traveling and always busy with his family and never pays on schedule. So around Feb. He finally put us on a legit payroll to give us proper pay schedule and for him to be legit as well.
The problem though, is that the Gov't taxes like 60-80$ off of every check (bi weekly) which is a large chunk every month. So I have made sacrifices and haven't been driving anywhere, doing anything (like going to the movies, eating out, or whatever. especially bad for gf), need new shoes and clothes etc. I won't go emo about that because I'm fine staying home on the comp anyways. But the main sacrifice has been food, I have been living off like ~100$ each month and this is almost a good thing because I have lost about 15 lbs since I was gaining a little bit of extra and not working out. Hey, that's another thing I can't afford, a gym pass.
So anyways, yea my boss still doesn't always pay on time because he has to input the hours and data on the comp still, and owes me commissions and shit. It's really getting annoying. I really like the guy and I like my job (I am writing this all right now in the down time for the past few hours) but it just doesn't pay enough and consistantly enough for me to properly balance my budget. I think I should start looking for other part time options at least right now.
I didn't write all of this just to vent, I actually need help with the fender bender situation. So if you only read one thing out of this whole long post, please read that and give some advice.
Btw I live in California.
PS- Wow, started writing this at 7:21 KST