Tom Geiger Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 What pleased me? It's stick day in my town... that's the day that the town trucks go around and pick up your brush and branches. I'm pleased because they took all my stuff. They are picky as to how it's put out (small stuff in rigid cans, no bags.. branches stripped flat no longer than 48" long, branches tied together.) and they must dream stuff up not to pick up your stuff, since they've left behind stuff every time! Today they took everything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 They have the same rules here for branch pickup. You practically have to giftwrap the stuff before they'll take it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 I had a mortgage calculator that calculated out how much sooner you paid off a mortgage if you added different amounts to your payment, which of course goes directly to the principal. This strategy can actually come out cheaper than a re-fi for a lot of folks Right, if you pay "extra" above your required monthly payment, that goes toward the principal and you can really shorten your mortgage and save a lot of $$$ on interest payments–without refinancing. Of course, the trick is that you have to be able to pay more than the required amount. A lot of people just don't have an extra few hundred unused dollars every month that they can throw in with their mortgage payment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyjim Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 We don't have "branch pick up" down here. I either send sticks, leaves, etc. through the chipper or toss them into the woods next door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyjim Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 We refinanced a few years ago when rates were real low. So low that we converted a 30 year fixed mortgage to a 15 year fixed mortgage and we've been paying the higher amount. We're real close to something neither of us has ever known - NO MORTGAGE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clovis Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 I agree, getting a re-fi can be a smart move, but you have to do the math to see if it works for you. I was on another forum once, and followed a thread about a young guy 'needing' to re-fi. The loan company was charging him like $6,200 to re-fi, and the guy was insistent that he needed it, because I "am getting crushed and keep coming up short every month." IIRC, he was going to save $85 a month, but of course, be re-set back to a new 30 year loan. Honestly, I think the guy had a budget and spending problem, and not a mortgage problem. I tried to politely suggest that he forgo the re-fi, and pick up a part time job, just one day a month...but when you are as convinced as he was, the only answer is the one that he wanted to hear. In the end, the guy, instead of just doing the re-fi, was given the option of borrowing even more money for "stuff we need", which wiped away the $85 a month savings. I swear, that is one of the craziest things I have ever read on the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Same with new cars. Seems they'll give anyone a new car with a $5-600 a month payment. I know a guy who has had three cars repossessed. Each time he just shrugs his shoulders and signs up for a new one! And somehow they keep letting him do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danno Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 I've seen some amazing things! I've worked a few cases involving really young guys working for car dealerships (top brand, new car dealerships, not sleazy used car joints). Kids just out of high school with little or no life experience, yet just old enough to sign contracts. All of them were "Finance Managers" or "Fleet Managers" or "Internet Sales Managers." All of them were enamored with expensive, luxury cars, and all of them were flipping from one luxo trade-in to another more expensive luxo trade-in. They'd start out with a couple of good months of commissions and buy more Corvette or BMW or Mercedes than they could afford when the commissions dropped. They got in way over their heads with big $$ payments, and sooner rather than later defaulted on their payments. Next thing you know, they were reporting their current ride 'stolen' or 'burned' or both, with lame stories. One 22-year-old had bought then "traded up" through 8 luxury cars in little over two years. Anything exotic and expensive looking that came in was fair game to him. He would glom onto the car and leverage his position to get financing. He kept "rolling over" the unpaid balances into the next car, over and over. He ended up with a sweet BMW trade-in that was only worth a touch over $25,000 but he owed $38,000 on it due to the accumulated negative equities from his series of 'trade-ups.' Then, then the car was found wrapped around a pole in the middle of the night . . . abandoned. The obvious result of some straight-line high speed driving on a curved boulevard. Next day, Junior Finance Manager reported it stolen. With an $18,000 repair estimate, the Beemer was a dead-bang total. Our investigation established that the "theft" was staged and his claim was false. It was denied, and he was left with a fancy paperweight that needed $18,000 worth of repairs . . . plus $38,000 debt to the lender for a 'car' he couldn't drive. His original rationale? 'It's Scottsdale, I had to have an impressive ride!' Just a side note: Although he never saw anything wrong with what he was doing, I also blame the dealership management that turned a blind eye to his shenanigans and the lenders who enabled him by approving really bad loans that they would never approve for anyone else (anyone other than a rain-making 'finance manager'). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clovis Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Our investigation established that the "theft" was staged and his claim was false. It was denied, and he was left with a fancy paperweight that needed $18,000 worth of repairs . . . plus $38,000 debt to the lender for a 'car' he couldn't drive. So, how did you figure out that it was a staged theft and fraudulent claim? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 So, how did you figure out that it was a staged theft and fraudulent claim? Yeah, how do you "stage" wrapping a car around a tree? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Handley Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Yeah, how do you "stage" wrapping a car around a tree? My guess, Point said vehicle down a straight enough road while doing something to keep the throttle depressed and steer it just enough to get it to that point in the curve, then let chance and physics take over from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 My guess, Point said vehicle down a straight enough road while doing something to keep the throttle depressed and steer it just enough to get it to that point in the curve, then let chance and physics take over from there. The car would have to be moving pretty fast. You're saying the driver jumps out right before impact? And all the while with nobody else seeing you? Pretty farfetched, but I guess it's possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Handley Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 The car would have to be moving pretty fast. You're saying the driver jumps out right before impact? And all the while with nobody else seeing you? Pretty farfetched, but I guess it's possible. Wouldn't need to be in the car, just find a long enough stretch before the curve to let the car build some speed prior to finding a solid object. I am kinda curious if they found a brick or something that compress the go pedal to keep it moving once the driver bails at a safer speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 (edited) Yeah, how do you "stage" wrapping a car around a tree? The fact that he reported it as stolen voided any claim for the collision. If the idiot just wrapped it around a tree and admitted he did it, he would've collected the $18,000 total value... which would have still left the huge balance he managed to accumulate. It was pretty common for idiots who were under water on a car to be able to trade it in and have that negative number added to the loan on the new car. You didn't have to be an insider to be taken by that deal! Many years ago my idiot friend had a two year old Chevy Metro that he had driven some 50,000 miles. He decided that he 'felt like a new car' and went back to a Chevy dealer where he mistook the salesman for his friend. He showed up at my house with a brandy new Cavalier that looked like a stripped rental car to me. He told me the Metro was 'a wash' (which in his mind meant that the car was worth the owed balance and he broke even) and he got this new car for the same payment. A month later he came back to my house wanting me to look over his deal. He had gotten his payment book and his monthly was something like $600. He wasn't good with paper, so he asked me to sort it all out. From what I read, the 'wash' on his Metro was that they gave him absolutely nothing on trade, and refinanced the entire $10,000 grand he owed on it. How after two years he still owed $10k on a $13k car was beyond the scope of my investigation, but I know they hosed him good on that one too. The fact that he came back, made it open season on numpties. So they took this Metro for free and then sold him the Cavalier at full list. Then they added some artificial options like the all important 'environmental protection package'. That's the $600-1000 option where they say they say they have undercoated it (spray can) and Scotch guarded the interior and added some magic application to the paint so it will last forever with no polish. An insider told me they do absolutely nothing to these cars. All in, his debt was like $30,000 on this stupid $15,000 Cavalier, which at GMAC's 22% interest rate added up to that $600 payment. There was no way they could've qualified him for that loan since he was a low wage owner who never could have made that payment. He was lied to every step of the way. The transmission on the Cavalier failed within three months and the dealership treated him like garbage, saying that they couldn't look at it for more than a month.. brand new car under warranty. He had it towed there, took his plates off and abandoned it on their lot. My sister's husband added new car salesman to his ever varied resume. He lasted less than a year, saying that the salesmen who were top earners were pretty much criminals who laughed at how bad they stuck customers. He was pressured into doing the same, and quit. Edited August 22, 2014 by Tom Geiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danno Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Yeah, how do you "stage" wrapping a car around a tree? I didn't say the crash was staged, I said he staged the 'theft.' He was drunk and street racing, crashed the Beemer, ran from the scene before police arrived. His driver's license was suspended and he had a couple of prior DUIs. He didn't want to be tied to the steering wheel. He called a friend who picked him up and took him home. He staged the "theft" claim by waiting until later and calling in that his car was missing from where he parked it the night before. He showed both keys and claimed they were in his pocket and dresser drawer all night. Asked how he thought the car was stolen, he said he guessed somebody hot-wired it, like they do on TV. (That can't happen anywhere but on TV, but most people dumb enough to try this stuff aren't smart enough to know we know better.) He surrendered the keys. I obtained his call records for his cell phone. Forensic exam of the car confirmed its anti-theft systems were not defeated, compromised or tampered with. There's other info, but no need to go into that here. He surrendered the keys. I had them interrogated and found the one he said was in his pants pocket all night was the last key to start and run the car. It started the car a short time before the accident and the odo mileage matched the distance from where he said he was partying earlier in the evening to the crash site. And, his cell phone records showed he made a series of calls to and from his friend starting right after the crash, and the first calls hit the cell tower closest to the crash site. There's more about this, too, but you get the idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badluck 13 Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 ....Taking Baby Girl to see Luke Bryan tonight,her favorite ....it was a great time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Handley Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 (edited) I found out that the Charlestowne Mall in St. Charles, IL, which has been going through a slow, agonizing death for the better part of the last decade, has started the begining stages of what's reported to be a $50-$70 million dollar renovation earlier this week and will also have the name changed to The Quad, St. Charles. http://thequadstcharles.com/ Hope it works out for them, it will be nice having a decent mall without having to drive a good distance. Edited August 22, 2014 by Joe Handley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 before the accident and the odo mileage matched the distance from where he said he was partying earlier in the evening to the crash site. And, his cell phone records showed he made a series of calls to and from his friend starting right after the crash, and the first calls hit the cell tower closest to the crash site. There's more about this, too, but you get the idea. Not getting away with anything with Officer Dan on the job! With all the technology today, it's very tough to get away with anytihng anymore. Makes a guy want to go honest! And it seems that most of the crimes are commited by people who weren't all that smart to begin with! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 And it seems that most of the crimes are commited by people who weren't all that smart to begin with! Yup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 I didn't say the crash was staged, I said he staged the 'theft.' Oops. You're right, I missed that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter31a Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Went to see Toronto All Stars Big Band last night. Still grinning from ear to ear. Great night, great music. Tonight the Model A Ford club shows up as this is where they are having their annual tour and we are going to the theatre as a group and seeing the British Invasion all about the Brit bands from the 60's. Should be another great night of music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Got back from Chicago to Phoenix safe and sound. Flew out and helped sister pack. Spent a great day with an old friend that I had seen only for about a half hour in the last 40 years. Had a great day. I was also happy to get some good food. Driving back with my sister and her 4 cats in 4 kennels and our luggage all packed in a Toyota Corolla was a real treat. : ) Took 2 1/2 days. Had a GPS that was spot on and did not have any troubles along the way. You have not lived until you spent a couple of nights in a small hotel room with 4 cats running loose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Ray... tell me that she chain smoked the whole way and you've got a pretty good movie script there! Glad you are home safe and sound! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Handley Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Lol, Tom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my80malibu Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Spent some quality time with new Grandson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.