Amazing Debt

[I Is Broke]

I received my discharge in the mail on 03/24/05. This was two weeks ago today.

I received in the mail yesterday an add from a car dealer offering me a car very very inexpensively. They say the payment is $149 for 72 months. This means we would probably pay for this car twice after interest and everything else. This gets me mad.

It just amazes me how the world wants to see us in debt and in over our heads. They don't give us a break. They just keep tempting us.

I threw the add in the garbage.

Is there a way to get off the mailing lists of this type of mail. Temptation sometimes is very hard to resist.

Can't they just leave us alone !?!?!

[vic6string]

Unfortunately, there is nothing like the Do-Not-Call list when it comes to the mail. And they will never make legislation to kill those mailings because there is too much money in it. You just have to resist the temptation of the Dark Side (what can I say, Episode 3 is almost here, have to sneak it in somehow)

[pangderx]

Actually, there is something I did which got me off the hook. I used to get about 5 or 6 credit card offers a day in the mail. I mean some of them were for the same card. You get the great Capital One "pre approved" offer...well I would get 2 on the same day! I started to get sick of it. SO one day I opened all of these offers, and laid them out on a table. I decided to have some fun with them. I had 4 offers in front of me...let's say a Visa, a mastercard, a discover, and an Amex. I simply took the pre paid envelope they all sent me and mailed them back the competitors offer. I sent Visa the Mastercard offer, Mastercard the Visa offer...etc. None were filled out of course, just blank credit card applications from different companies. After about 2 months of this, I now get about 1 per week. They must have gotten sick of paying the postage for nothing.

[moore5425]

I is broke

I heard on the radio that a good way to avoid these high intrest credit offers is to simply throw them away as soon as you get them out of the mail. I don't even open them. If they say pre-approved I really don't open them. They cannot pre-approve you for anything other than the demographics they may know about you. All the hits on your credit also look bad. :o :o

[HRx]

I heard on the radio that a good way to avoid these high intrest credit offers is to simply throw them away as soon as you get them out of the mail. I don't even open them. If they say pre-approved I really don't open them. They cannot pre-approve you for anything other than the demographics they may know about you. All the hits on your credit also look bad. :o :o

Excellent idea!

[HHM]

Yes, through them away, but also tear them up so someone doesn't responde to one of these offers and tries to steal your identity.

[rhonda0503]

I do about the same as pangderx expect I mail EVERYTHING that came in the offer back to the cc company with "REMOVE MY NAME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST" on it. Also, sometimes I don't even open the envelope and just write "RETURN TO SENDER" and put back in the mailbox.

[vic6string]

I have thrown away more than my share without replying, but I always at least look at them. If you are living a post BK life, one of the biggest things you need to do is to rebuild your credit. You can do that by paying off your bills on time (mortgage, student loans, car loans) but at some point you are going to need to have a credit card or two again. I look at every offer, and evaluate it. I know what I am looking for, and I will not apply to anything unless it fits my criteria. I filed 6/03, and was discharged 11/03. Since then I have probably recieved on average 3 of these letters a week. I have applied to exactly 2 of them (one after about 6 months, and one just 2 weeks ago). My first was a Cap 1 Platinum (after I ignored a bunch of regular cap 1s) with a 2G limit. The recent one a Providian platinum w/ 8G limit. Both are unsecured, both have no yearly fee. I will now wait another year or so (ignoring them all) and will then look for either someone not known for sub-prime (like bank of america with which I have a savings and 2 checking accounts) or something with a rewards program. After that, I will be done. 3 cards, little purchases, paid in full every month. You have to get the will power to handle this. It is incredible how much slower it is to build your score without cards. Plus, if that emergency ever hits, I know I have something to fall back on. That is what happened to get me into BK7 (maxed out CCs after layoff) but if not for the cards, I'd have still gone BK but had no home/car or anything left to show for it.

[robivi3]

Not me, I'm a diehard Todd believer. I'm paying off my two remaining Visas, closing one and SAVING. First goal $3000.00. There is no feeling like an emergency that can be handled financially.

Time and CRA correction rebuild credit.