Digital Impulses

Credit report clean-up: AT&T Wireless and SouthWest Credit Systems

As part of Project POLGVB, I just spent the last 2 hours on the phone with Southwest Credit Systems and with AT&T Wireless trying to get a mis-reported item removed from my credit report.

Southwest Credit Systems SUCKS
As expected (they are a debt-collection agency, after all), Southwest Credit Systems were utterly incompetent and of no help whatsoever, hanging up on me TWICE in the span of 10 minutes.  Eventually, I was able to find a place on their website to "make a payment" and when I looked up my account, it stated that I had balance of $0.00 and that the account was CLOSED.

AT&T Wireless Rocks
I soon found myself on the phone with the AT&T Wireless Receivables department and they could not have been more professional.

I spoke with a very nice gentleman by the name of David who took all of my information and made a bunch of annotations to my account, stating to me that he was in the process of initiating the correction process with  Southwest Credit Systems.  He then stated to me that I should see the change by July 3, 2008 or that I would hear from them in regards to the status of the account if the correction had not been made by then.

Now I wait and see WHEN and IF this has been actually REMOVED from my credit report.

Out of 2nd Life

I just now came into my office and I had an email from 2nd Life, telling me that they were about to bill me $22.75 for the quarterly renewal fee for my *premium* 2nd Life account.

An account I have used maybe 2 or 3 times since I signed up for it in April of 2006, mind you.

I immediately went to the 2nd Life website, searched around until I found a customer service FAQ that had the answer on how to cancel your account.  When I started the process to cancel the account, I was told that I could just DOWNGRADE to a BASIC account that was FREE, and that this account would allow me to still access 2nd Life and look around and stuff.

So that's what I did.  I now have a free, basic account that allows me to login and look around and I can later re-establish my premium, paid account if I decide I want to really get back in to 2nd Life.

This is all part of my merciless hacking of all unnecessary debt that I have signed up for over the years and get billed for monthly on different credit card accounts.  As I get renewal notices, I am going to cut them all away until all I am being billed for are true essential services.

Yay Me!  And thanks, Dave Ramsey.  You rock.

Project POLGVB: Initial Meeting with Wells Fargo Financial

This evening we drove over to the Torrance office on Carson street of Wells Fargo Financial and met with two very professional and nice ladies who walked us through the questions they had (less than the first Wells Fargo interaction, since they already had our files and documentation).

They seemed very positive and upbeat and stated that pending the appraisal of our property, that we should be able to do some business. Now to see what the appraisal comes back at and to see if we can get a competing offer from somewhere else to see if they can do something about the interest rate they are going to charge us.

But, in a nutshell, this was a very positive meeting we had.  Good.

Crappy Thursday

Today was one of THOSE days.

It was punctuated by by me getting VERY ANGRY at the spousal unit for not having dinner ready in a timely fashion and then compounding that by tearing off to Denny's for dinner and just pigging out as a way to get back at her somehow.

Like she could give a fuck that I did that or that I was angry.  She was just probably happy that she got away once again without having to cook.

After the abortive dinner at Denny's I took off for Barnes & Noble in Manhattan Beach to decompress and pick up some books on taking care of your personal credit scores.

Bit of a stressful Wednesday

As if the ugly phone call and news I got from Alex at WF this morning was not enough, I have to deal with a tremendous amount of FUD and angst at my workplace, as there has been quite a shakeup in staff and there is a lot of whispering and muttering amongst my colleagues reagarding what might happen next... This sucks, I tell ya.

Rescuing the Teenager
In the middle of all of this, I get a call from the teenager to tell me that he blew out a tire on the 405 san Diego freeway in Long Beach and that he needed help paying for a replacement tire.  He was lucky that the exit he took from the freeway was one that just happened to have a Good Year tire replacement store and he was able to get the car there without having to call AAA for a tow truck.

I took off immediately to where he was and by the time I got there, the repairs were almost done.  We waited in the lobby of the store for a few minutes and then eventually we went and paid for the repairs and he was on his way to his girlfriend's house in the O.C.

FICO discussions with Bert
After rescuing my son, I came home for lunch and had an interesting conversation with Bert regarding FICO scores, credit reports, how to care and maintain them and such.  It was one of those rare instances in which a conversation with Bert did not end up on a bad note or with him dumping a bucket of cold water on whatever happy news or project I am working on, as he usually does.

Project POLGVB: Xnay from Wells Fargo

Just as I suspected, I spoke with Alex from WF today and she confirmed to us that 594 and 603 are not going to get it done in terms of qualifications to do business with her department at Wells Fargo.

So now it's on to Wells Fargo Financial to see what they can offer us. 

One hopes for the best.

Dinner and a visit to see family

After that rather depressing trip to the Bank, we stopped by Havana Mania for dinner and after that I went and visited with my grandmother to see about trying to configure a DVD player for them to watch comfortably.

After I explained the problems with watching a WIDE SCREEN movie on a regular, 16:9 old fashion, non HDTV ready television set, they understood and stopped stressing about thinking they simply not connected the DVD player correctly.

I ended up chatting with them for a few hours and then took off and arrived home a little after 2200.

Project POLGVB: 2nd Visit to Wells Fargo

This evening we stopped by the bank for a 2nd visit with Alex Castro to see about the status of a loan application we have in with her in regards to Project POLGVB.

Not Good.

Alex seems to be very nice and professional, but she seems to be one of these people who cannot mask her emotions and I TOTALLY got the vibe from her that her department in Wells Fargo will not be able to do business with us with our current financial profile.

In the future, after we have taken care of a few issues, sure.  She may come around looking to do business with us.  We'll see and time will tell. For the right here and now, Alex referred us to a division of Wells Fargo called "Wells Fargo Financial" to see if we can work something out with them.  We shall see what develops from that also.

Interesting time in my life, let  me tell you.  Sheesh.

Boring Monday

Nothing much to report other than I completed my desk move at work in Carson this morning and later on in the evening, I stopped by to visit mom and helped her setup her new cell phone.

A quiet, uneventful Monday.

Nice, quiet Sunday: Moving desks and seeing "Get Smart"

Spent a few hours today in my office in Carson, Ca moving my stuff from a cubical next to the door to a desk INSIDE AN OFFICE near the same front door to the room we occupy here on campus.

After doing that, I came home and slept for a few hours.  Later in the evening, the teenager, his girlfriend and I drove over to The Bridge Cinema Delux to see 'Get Smart' starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway and Dwayne Johnson (The Rock).  The movie was funny and we had a great time.

Good day, all in all. Nice.