Think I'll turn in

I didn't see anything I felt like writing about on the news. I requested a free credit report and looked over that. I need to take care of some debts. That's my new year's resolution, to work on my finances. Right now my credit is bad enough that anyone trying to steal my identity would be in for a rude awakening. But it is better than it has been.  :-)

Hell has frozen over

For the first time in years, I have a credit card, thanks to Capital One, the folks whose commercials feature barbarians asking, 'What's in your wallet?' The credit limit is small, but will increase if I make a purchase within 5 months and make five consecutive payments. And no, I did not rush right out there and buy something, although I did link my Roku player to it to avoid any unfortunate issues with my debit card. I'll likely do the same with the Science Fiction Book Club, which no longer forces me to deny or accept featured selections, but still. This also means that when I go on my Chicago trip, I can use it for the incidentals at the hotel and not have $40 held out of my chequing account. Little things like that make my life easier.

The plan is to get something in about the $30 range (I need a shower curtain liner and a couple of things for the house, so probably it will be that.) Then I'll pay off my bill in full. Then I an continue to charge small chunks I can pay off easily so that I get the increase in credit. The limit is such that I could pay the whole thing off on a good month, if need be. But I want to keep as much credit open for such things as the Chicago trip, whenever that happens this fall. There's no annual fee or anything like that, purchases are protected, although the annual percentage rate is fairly high, so this is not something I want to carry much of a balance on.

Capital One lets you choose what your design will be for the card. Mine is green with a lady bug on it, strange I suppose, considering the barbarian motif. I thought the envelope a little heavy for a rejection, but they've been sending me quite a few offers and I thought it might just be one of those. I stared at the card for a good fifteen minutes before activating it. :)

I've been stupid in the past with credit cards, but I've been watching how YKWIA handles his credit and I hope to follow his example, using it responsibly and paying off most or all of it before it becomes a liability. We'll see.

Scary--the perils of being 'digitally dead'

Hey banks: This woman is alive!

Judy Rivers went to the bank with a simple request in April: She wanted to open a safe deposit box. The response, while equally simple, was a complete surprise. The bank turned her down. Why?

She was dead.

At least that's what the bank's security systems indicated. Sorry, a bank official said, we can't open an account for you. Rivers asked more questions but got only vague answers. An outside company indicated there was a problem with her Social Security number, she was told, but the bank wouldn't tell her the name of the firm.

Apparently someone can make a clerical error somewhere in an unverified database and poof! your life as you know it (access to your money, to credit, anything based off your social security number) can go down the tube, and everyone starts treating you like you're some identity thief who has stolen another person's life, when you're just trying to access your own. And it can be nearly impossible to track down all the errors that derive from that one and get your life back. Read the article. It's worse than any fictional horror story, and it could happen so easily. It's as bad as dealing with the many-headed hydra of identity theft, or worse.

Yay, vacation, sort of!

Today starts my vacation from the hospital, although I have to work at the store at 3 pm. I slept in and then went online, checked my automatic deposit from the store, and got my credit report, which was grim but nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. So I have a starting point for paying off my debt. Then I had to fix my cell phone, which didn't go off this morning to wake me up. Turns out I'd accidentally put the electrical plug into the ear phone jack briefly yesterday and it somehow got it stuck so the speaker wouldn't work, meaning that the alarm did try to go off but the phone must have just vibrated. I'm glad it was fixable. Must watch that in the future. Now I'm eating some tuna and applesauce, which is practically the only food in the house. It's a good thing that I'm getting paid today and tomorrow at both jobs.

On the agenda for today:

• Straighten up the house a bit.
  
• Take out the trash.
  
• Clean out the refrigerator.
  
• Do some dishes.
  
• Read.
  
• Go to the library--one of my books is due.
  
• Get laundry money.
  
• Go to work.
  

Tomorrow:

• Go to Kroger, get snacks.
  
• Go to friend's house on the bus so I'm there by 10 am.
  
• Have a Prophecy movie marathon (five movies).
  
• Come back on bus or by cab if the bus isn't running that late.
  

Friday I need to do some laundry and possibly get with someone I haven't seen in a couple of months. Then I work Friday night. Saturday I work 2-10. Sunday's the game. Monday is wonderful Indian food for a friend's birthday.

That's pretty much my vacation. Improving my life, spending time with friends, that's what it's all about.

Well, it couldn't hurt, the worse they can say is 'no'

The car is dying, I believe. I couldn't get it above 25 mph Thursday on the way to work, the engine was revving to 4000 rpms, and smoke or steam was coming out from under the hood.

Needless to say, it's sitting at work until I can take it in Monday to get the verdict, but most of what I'm seeing and hearing about it is that it is possibly a fuel pump but more likely the transmission, and the transmission fluid is dark, rather than red, so that increases the chances of a need for a rebuild. Thing is, the transmission was rebuilt a couple of years ago, and it is too expensive to do again for a car worth at most $300-600. A fuel pump isn't much better.

So. That means either saving up for a car that's, say $2000, or doing the unthinkable (with my credit) and trying to actually get a car financed. Ha! you say. But you know, the worse they can say is no.

I looked around and found a vehicle I liked from Glenn Auto Mall, the car lot that is within walking distance. It's a 2002 Honda Odyssey, 98,380 miles (that's 150,000 or so less than my current car), Taffeta White, and running $9,477. Yes, for those uninitiated, it's a small van. But I figure I schlepp five animals about occasionally; it might be nice to have some room, plus the ability to haul things [at least sub-pickup truck things] back and forth can be useful. The car payment would be less than $150-$175, if the credit thing works out alright, and I could do that. When I crunched the numbers, I was surprised that if I take my average paycheque from the store and put it with the hospital's, it comes out to about $6,000 more per year than last year, but then I had more than $1/hour raise at the hospital earlier in the year due to a market adjustment. So I'm hoping that will work in my favour.

Like I said, it's worth a try. I don't fancy a lot of bus travel, and there are others who depend on me for a ride. So it would be good all around to have a car of some type, especially one that has some life in it yet. So wish me luck.