Many numbers of fail

[Mental_Mouse]

Sometimes I wonder, deep down inside, if some people don't really get how money works.

Once you get past cold cash, may folks don't! Even balancing a checkbook has to be learned, and keeping up with it takes discipline (and some arithmetic, but that's another rant). And even today, some folks can't hold onto the idea that their money is still finite even when its out of sight in the bank. ("I can't be overdrawn, I still have checks left!") Debit cards are worse, because you're not even filling out that form which says "pay this amount to this person".

And then with actual credit cards, it's explicit that you're not paying out of your own account, "somebody" is providing the money -- you're just handing over/poking/tapping/waving your little token. The idea that you're going to need to pay that back... well, some folks really can't think that far into the future.

[Cia]

Once you get past cold cash, may folks don't! Even balancing a checkbook has to be learned, and keeping up with it takes discipline (and some arithmetic, but that's another rant). And even today, some folks can't hold onto the idea that their money is still finite even when its out of sight in the bank. ("I can't be overdrawn, I still have checks left!")

Back in high school accounting class I decided to balance my parent's checkbook for practice. I couldn't get it to balance no matter what I did. Turns out my Mom likes to deduct a bill's balance in the checkbook before she writes the check so she knows there will be money in the account when she finally pays the bill. She actually writes the deduction in the checkbook balance but doesn't always remember that she did so and then deducts it again when writing the check. Don't get me started on the lack of notating deposits.

When Mom and Dad got married, Dad spent two weeks with the bank manager trying to reconcile Mom's personal checkbook balance. They gave up and came to an agreement over a certain dollar amount that should be left in the account to cover any unknown checks floating out in the blue sphere before they opened a brand new joint checking account.

Now days Mom still has the checkbook with god knows what kind of balance and Dad handles the savings account.

[SpyOne]

Maybe the plan with the $35,000 car was to then sell one of the more expensive cars on which they owed more.

I'm probably giving the too much credit. (Oops: pun not intended.)

Any chance they could sell the house, and use the proceeds to pay off part of the debt?

No, rather the opposite. The debt they owe on the house is about $20,000 more than the appraised value, so if they sold the house they'd have to come up with $20,000 to pay off the loan and then have nothing.

[Sparklyturtle]

A story about balancing a checkbook: My dad balanced the checkbook on the back of an essay my sister had written for her history class. The teacher of this class was an excellent teacher, but I had him as a teacher a few years later, and his reputation for being eccentric was well earned. She told me she didn't have time to recopy her essay, so she handed it in and hoped the teacher wouldn't notice. No such luck - she got her essay back, and the teacher had corrected my dad's math.

[Mental_Mouse]

Sparklyturtle: lol! That would be a good story for Not Always Right (Learning).

[earl colby pottinger]

Dodge a trap

I just dodged a money trap without realizing it.

Reading this thread just made me aware that I just avoided wasting a lot of money.

See I have a car and a truck that are fully paid for and are running fine but both are getting old (ie. ten and eleven years old). So last thursday I went to the local dealer to look at buying a Bolt brand new, the dealer did not have any and told me I would have to wait a year or two to get one here in Ontario.

He then tried to steer me into buying a Volt, then he tried to get me to see that in one-two years time I trade in the Volt and upgrade to a Bolt.

What I just realize this is a way to keep people buying cars and moving inventory. Too many people think they have to buy new, on the other-hand if I have to wait two years get a Bolt and I have working cars now I can wait the two years and get a used Bolt at a good price then. Or for that matter a number of used Teslas should come onto the market too.

[Mental_Mouse]

Yup, sales resistance saves more money than any "bargain".

[workerbee222]

"Turns out my Mom likes to deduct a bill's balance in the checkbook before she writes the check so she knows there will be money in the account when she finally pays the bill."

I read of a woman doing this with her credit card purchases so she knew she could pay for the things she put on her card.

[Kristev]

Why, that's almost as unheard of as keeping your receipts so that you can figure out how much money you've used . . .

OOC: I was attempting to be snarky there. In reality, I think treating your debit card like a checkbook, and subtracting how much something will cost you beforehand is a splendid idea. As in, balancing it so you know how much you have left before you go shopping.

[greek_jester]

Since, as a country, we don't tend to use cheque books so much privately in the UK, we don't balance cheque books.

What I personally do is use the notes function on my phone to keep a running total of how much is left in my bank account after all direct debits and standing orders are accounted for, plus how much money I've spent on my credit card this month.*

* I pay it off in full every month so I don't get charged interest, plus I accumulate points which can be converted into vouchers in quite a few shops that I regularly go to anyway.

[taxguykarl]

Sometimes I wonder, deep down inside, if some people don't really get how money works.

This SC in the OP clearly doesn't understand how credit work.....namely that you have to pay it back sometime.

[bankworking]

*UPDATE 12/20/2017*

One thing this Sc has, it is persistence. At least persistence in trying to ask someone to help him borrow his way out of the mess he got himself into and is not making any effort himself to truly get out of.

So, over the past month, plus, SC has continued to push for us to do "something" to help him.

Except he doesn't want to meet with a debt counselor.

And he doesn't want to try to sell off one of his three cars to see if he can drop that payment.

And he doesn't want to stop using his credit cards so as to at least not make the debt worse.

No, he wants his house to magically appraise for more money so he can have the equity to do what he wants.
Barring that, he wants us to come up with his version of an unsecured loan tailor made to assist him because he's a special snowflake who deserves it for breathing or some such reason.

So, SC persistence pushed his plea up the management chain to one of the bank VPs, the one in charge of lending. Who asked me to send him everything I had. I forwarded the whole email chain (THIS is why my emails to customers are ALWAYS professional and polite, no matter what the circumstances.... well that, and I really believe in doing my best at customer service, but it's nice to know that I can forward any email chain to a VP and not worry about what they will read.)

Anyway, the VP actually comes to see me, because he wants to know what he's missing. Because guess what, HE can't find anything to fight for either.

And I get to tell the VP pretty much: Yes, that's right. Nothing worth fighting for.

Doesn't help that SC decided to spend an extra thousand this past weekend at a department store on his credit card with us. I guess it's goodish that he had the available limit to spend, but still...

To (hopefully) end it all, the VP sent a rather strongly worded email to the SC...basically saying: "You make enough income. Stop spending so much."

By the way, this SC's income left over after his minimum debt payments is more than I make BEFORE my bills...

[RealUnimportant]

Good to know the high-ups have your back; I was worried for a minute that they'd magically align their thoughts with the SC.