excuse me sir, are you allowed to scream at him?

This week has been stressful to say the least. Shawn got a call from one of his student loan providers and apparently, the damn thing is in default (this means he's in big trouble and they want to hit him with a brick) because he's been paying less ($20 less) than they want. Well, this brings all sorts of issues so he's been trying to get it straightened out and what I've learned is that people are incredibly ridiculous and unreasonable, especially when phrases like, "No we won't give you an agreement in writing!" and "Just give us your checking account info and trust that we won't take more than X amount!" start getting thrown around. And until it's all fixed, it will stay on his credit report which effects our ability to buy a house, new cars and whatever else.

I hadn't checked mine since earlier this year so I decided to. $50 later, I discovered two things. One, a bogus addition to said credit report that I'm currently disputing. Thank you, TransUnion for removing it so promptly. Please tell the other two to hurry it up. Anyway, it was a strange negative account that did not belong to me, so I clicked the awesome dispute button, filled out their form and just am waiting to hear the results from all three credit bureaus. 

And two, I'm currently up to about $30K in student loan debt. Guess that's what happens on a ten-year plan when you lose your scholarship. Sigh. Maybe I should start thinking about staying in school forever so I don't have to pay them back.

Moving on, I don't think I realized until I had been on my own for a little bit that credit makes the world go 'round. Without it, it's almost impossible to make those big purchases: house, car, clydesdale. And a variety of factors mess with it: late payments, applying for credit cards, balances too close to your limit, etc. With today's economy, it's harder to get loans and the requirements are stricter than they once were. And credit scores are a big part of that. Lenders want to see a history of reliability. I had a minor bump or two in my younger days but now I keep the amount of credit cards to a couple, pay them off every month, pay all other bills on time and in full. And hopefully that'll be enough to buy the big stuff. Forget the house...hello new horsie. I think I'll call you Leon.

briana :)