****Bitch mode ON****
Bart, I'm sure you recall me, I've written to
you a few times in the past and most recently
on the subject of being out of work and broke.
As I stated in my last letter to you I was able
to make ends meet until the end of September.
We are now just about midway. I officially hold
a matter of $30 in my checking account (no savings),
no more assets to sell on Ebay, borrowed
all I can from family and friends just to make
last months bills. Now I've been on the phone all day
with my creditors explaining how I've been out
of work for over a year and how I get told I'm
over qualified to serve fries. But I want to
keep my accounts in good standing but need to somehow
lower my payments or postpone them temporarily,
make interest payments, whatever...anything.
Every freaking place I call, my credit cards,
mortgage, etc all say the same thing..."we're sorry
about your situation but there's nothing we can
do as far as lowering your payments. You will
have until the end of the month to pay before
it gets reported."
Well thanks for fucking nothing!!! If I didn't
give a rats ass about my future and my credit standing
I'd consider going bankrupt and then you heartless
jackoffs would get zilch! Hell I'd even go on a
spending spree before hand like most others do
when they plan to file. And since I live in Florida,
I can do this and own my home scott free!!!!
Hey, if the Kenny boy Lay's can do it, why the fuck can't I?
Why, because I'm just an average Joe doing the best I possibly can to "put food on my family".
My industry (mechanical design/drafting)is in
the trash and I'm too qualified to get a minimum wage job,
what the fuck else do they expect people like
me to do? I'm already on the welfare deal when it comes
to my kid's school lunches and medical bennies.
Federal cheese is next on the dinner menu for the family.
I can't fuckin take it anymore!!!
Blues
Blues, I have a few suggestions.
1. Temp work.
When Von Reagan dumped America into a depression in the
eighties, I had just lost my live rock club
and was 40K in debt and couldn't find a job, so I signed
up with the state employment agency.
Somehow, I set the record on the Oklahoma job placement
test. They told me they had never seen
a hundred percent rating on the written test, and I also
passed the coordination test where you have
to put the round pegs in the round holes. (This
weeds out the druggies.)
But even after this, they never called me with one job
offer - not even loading trucks, so I signed up
for some temp work. It wasn't bad. They saw I had
an aptitude for numbers and math, so I became
their best man for these seminar sign-up jobs. People
go to a convention, and they'd need someone
to collect money, make change, cross names off the attendence
rolls and run credit cards.
It didn't pay a lot, but it'd pay like $80 for a half day.
That puts food on your family.
Try that. If you do the first few jobs well, they'll begin
to trust you and give you "plum" work.
2. Pizza order taker.
I work in a finance office. I've had clients tell
me they make up to $100 per shift at Pizza Hut
or Dominos taking pizza orders. It's not glamerous, but
it's $100 bucks at a time.
3. Your credit file
By law, they have to let you put a statement in
your credit file. Look in the Yellow Pages under
"Credit Reporting Agencies" and call each one -
tell them you want to put a statement in your file.
Important: You are NOT under oath when you
write this statement.
I'd recommend you tell them about your wife's miscarriage,
your broken back and the sorry tale
of when the mob kidnapped your kids. Pile
on as much as you think you can get away with.
At some point, you'll be back on your feet, and when that happens, I have a two-pronged plan:
Prong A
Get a thousand dollars. Go to your bank and ask
them if they will loan you a thousand dollars
if you put your thousand in a savings account to
use as collateral. They should agree to that.
Then you take the thousand they give you and apply
for a new VISA credit card with companies
like Providian, Capital One and Colonial. You tell
them you want a $300 limit and send them
the $300 to use as collateral on your news cards.
(They report every month to the CB)
Then you go buy what you couldn't afford since Dim
Son crashed the economy.
Make those three payments in full and on
time for seven months, then you will have
FOUR pieces of current up-to-date credit in your
history and then...
Prong B
Enter another statement into your credit file,
declaring that you are now back on your feet,
and as you always have in the past, you will be diligent
about paying your bills on time.
Explain that when the economy tanked you had to take a
roofing job and that's how you
fell and broke your back and now you're healed and working
and as they can plainly see,
your recent credit history proves you are back in good
financial health and ready to pay
them their 21%, the gouging bastards. (Don't include
"gouging bastards" in your statement.)
I hope this helps. It won't help much today, well
the jobs will, but you at least have a plan.
I did this so I know it works.
If you want to read this again in the future, remember http://www.bartcop.com/credittips.htm
So call some temp agencies and call the pizza delivery
places.
They only expect you to work a month or two, so they don't
care if you're over-qualified.
Good luck, Dude, and hang in there.
This happens every time a Republican's in the White House.