Author: substitute

nope

Car loan, or why we hate bankers

I bought a Ford Fiesta from Robins Ford in Costa Mesa on Friday, July 30. It’s a great car. The price was good. The salesman was helpful and intelligent and didn’t do car salesman B.S.

I had a preapproved loan from my credit union for 6.1%.

The finance guy worked me a bit for upselling on warranties and insurance products, but wasn’t very pushy. He then wanted to get the loan business. He told me he could get me 6% or better. He was going to work on this over the weekend.

On Saturday he called me and said “I got you 6%.”

A couple of weeks passed. I got a number of loan rejection letters in the mail from various banks. I got no approvals. I called him and asked if there was something I needed to sign additionally, and he said no, they would mail me.

A couple more weeks passed. I called him asking what loan I had, and when I should get the mail. I got voicemail and the call was not returned. Repeat twice.

I called Ford Motor Credit. They had no loan for my car or anything in my name.

I received mail from Chase Bank announcing that my loan had been approved and they’d given me a lower rate because I qualified for same. My rate: 8.39%.

I called Robins Ford and was told that my credit guy no longer worked there. I talked to a new guy. He was polite and professional. He said “look at your contract; whatever is on there is your rate.” He agreed that the whole thing was upsetting. He also said that it was possible to get the credit union to loan me at a lower rate and pay off this worse loan immediately, which was a good thought.

My contract (here’s the part that’s my fault) said 10%. Credit manager guy had literally waved his hand over this as if it was a formality, or some kind of placeholder. Burned.

I applied to the credit union for a loan to repay this one; it was declined due to excessive debt. Doh.

Meanwhile, it was time for me to make my first payment. I already had a Chase account paid by bank transfer, so I set this up for the auto loan also. The system rejected my information at first. I assumed I had made a typo, and tried again. Another failure. Looking carefully at my bank’s site, I saw that they now had a separate transfer number for electronic payments of this kind. I re-entered my bank info and now it was accepted. I paid the current bill and set up automated payments.

On the 22nd of September I got a late payment phone call from Chase. Looking at my account online, I saw that it said the following: next payment due date: 9/13. last payment made: 9/13. Account late. Amount due: my monthly plus a processing charge and a returned check charge.

I called Chase and a comedy ensued. The rep was very pleasant and professional. Together, we took a journey through madness and finance. It was clear that I had paid on the 13th, that the transaction was bollixed, and that a week later the computer decided that the transaction had not gone through and they were considering it a bad check. There was no late fee yet. I mentioned twice that this was during the time when Chase had an exceptionally bad I.T. disaster involving their loan systems, but he was silent about this.

I made my one-time payment with the rep on the phone, and he said he would get the bounced check charge remove.

Today, I looked at my Chase account. The account was now listed as overdue with a late charge. The last payment still said the 13th. And my new payment was listed as “in process.”

The bankers have mentioned recently that their feeling are hurt, that they feel bruises, that they are being unfairly vilified by the media and public servants. Why do we attack their large salaries? Why do we resent their guaranteed bonuses? Why are we insisting that the regulators regulate instead of sipping the bankers’ Scotch? Why do we fly into tantrums when their bold, risk-taking, disruptive innovations in finance blow up and kick shrapnel in our faces?

IT’S BECAUSE EVERY SINGLE DEAL WITH THEM IS A DRUG DEAL GONE SOUR AND WE GET OUR ASSES GRIFTED BUT GOOD, AND THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF THE GRIFT ARE WEIGHTLESS UNTOUCHABLE ARISTOCRATS WHO LIVE ON PLANET VEUVE-CLICQUOT AND WILL NEVER, EVER BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR CRIMES OR EVEN STOPPED FROM CONTINUING THEM.

But it’s a snappy little car.

Dear Lazyweb: WIC and nutrition stores

I know that WIC is the federal program for pregnancy, breastfeeding, and infant nutrition. I see their offices in poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles. And I also know that women receiving that aid get EBT cards or checks that have to be spent on very specific items.

Next door to almost every WIC office I see a store with a name like “Mommy’s Nutrition” or “Baby and Mom Nutrition.” It’s obvious that these places exist to immediately capture the business from WIC.

Are these places predatory? I did come across a reference to “WIC Only Stores” being predatory and the government putting in fair price rules to deter that, but that was in 2006 and the stores are still everywhere.

I know some of you work professionally with poverty issues. What’s the scoop?

Experiment in herbivoracity

I’ve decided to eat less meat and consume less animal products.

All-at-once changes in habit don’t work for me, and in any case I’m not ready to become a vegetarian. But just “doing it less often” won’t work. I’m an omnivore and lazy. Failure awaits.

Instead, I have committed to one vegetarian day a week. There’s no way I can’t do that, and since it’s formalized it will be harder to screw it up.

I will probably make it a weekday, maybe Wednesday. I’ll decide next week. Today, though, was such a day. I consumed:

Coffee w/milk
A banana.
Ice tea/lemonade drink.
Salad of beets, sweet red peppers, and cucumber in a yogurt-lemon dressing with coarse black pepper
Arabian flatbread
Sweet corn soup w/black pepper
Red wine

Gin
Stoned wheat crackers
Beer
Probably more beer later

Gosh, this is going to be PAINFUL!

Notes from a drive

I drove all around Southern California tonight.

Notable:

I was nearly knocked off the road by the Spanish-language Bush Beans promotional truck, a full-sized pickup truck covered with bean inducements.

I passed a store called PEANUT DUDES which had a banner advertising peanutdudes.com. Unfortunately the domain doesn’t work.

The Los Angeles/Long Beach harbor at night are a stunning sight. Container ships the size of town, sky-clawing cranes, and everything lit up like Christmas. It’s a spaceport. I bet a lot of locals have never been over the Vincent Thomas Bridge or up 103 and seen the refineries and ships and all that infrastructure glowing in the dark.

And speaking of spaceports, that part of town is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Phrase of the day: Mall Intervention

Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) Mall

The PSR Mall is a centralized approach to delivering services where the individuals served and the staff from throughout the hospital come together to participate in services. Malls represent more of a centralized system of programming rather than a reference to a specific building or certain location. Mall interventions are provided, as much as possible, in the context of real-life functioning and in the rhythm of life of the individual. Thus, a PSR mall extends beyond the context of a building or “place,” and its services are based on the needs of the individual, not the needs of the program, the staff members or the institution.

PSR Malls are designed to ensure that each individual receives individualized services to promote his increased wellness and ability to thrive in the world. All decisions regarding what is offered through each mall are driven by the needs of the individuals served. Mall services are provided in an environment that is culturally sensitive and strengths based.

Services facilitated through the mall include courses and activities designed to help with symptom management, personal skills development and life enrichment. The mall capitalizes on human and staff resources from the entire hospital to provide a larger diversity of interaction and experiences for all individuals in the mall.