Make a Budget: Mommy Ruined Tommy’s Credit
- Train Wreck Tuesday
- Our Train Wreck series features stories of financial woe submitted anonymously by our readers. Submit your own story, and if selected, you'll win a Mint t-shirt!
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Throughout my whole life, my mother has been horrible about debt. She always seemed to be in one fix or another. But the Train Wreck really happened when my mom’s debt problems started spilling over onto my brother. Too bad, she couldn’t make a budget.
My mother really wanted a new computer. She’s always been a gadget gal, and her laptop was starting to really show its age. She couldn’t afford a new computer outright, and her credit was in the toilet. So she turned to my brother, who was probably 20 years old at the time.
The idea was, my brother would “buy” the new computer using his clean credit, and my mom would make all the payments. Can you see where this is headed? My mother simply couldn’t make a budget. I probably could have seen it, if I hadn’t been 13 year old at the time, and thus not paying any attention at all.
So my brother bought the computer, and my mother tried to make payments on it, but eventually fell behind. And took my brother’s credit score with her. To this day, over 6 years later, my brother has not been able to pull his credit score up to where it was.
As a side note, the computer, which my mom bought from an infomercial, was complete junk. It had all sorts of problems, and eventually it was passed down to me. I wiped the hard-drive, but true evil cannot be purged through reformatting alone. I put up with the computer’s fiendish ways for three years, until I received the next hand-me-down computer.
Which I’m still using, by the way.
Moral of the story? Do. Not. Put. Your. Credit. Score. In. The. Hands. Of. Someone. Else. Oh, and don’t buy computers off of the television.
Train Wreck Tuesdays are a weekly post of horrible financial mistakes. They are posted anonymously. Submit your story; if you’re selected, you get a free personal finance book. The best comment gets the same prize!
So these Tuesday Train Wreck stories are your version of Dave Ramsey’s Stupid Tax stories? I like Dave’s better.
I’ve never read Ramsey’s Stupid Tax stories before, but from the sound of it, it is probably similar. Although our train wreck stories aren’t limited to tax mistakes. Thanks for the comment!
Great story - I am actually involved in a similar situation so I can relate to this. My dad promised to pay back my student loans and fell behind. I didn’t think twice about it because he is a doctor. The worst part was I didn’t notice he wasn’t paying them until 3 months after the fact. So now after working so hard in college I have to start out handicapped.
To take it a step further after finding this out, paying the balance myself, and him promising to pay it - he still didn’t pay. Now I am stuck with 15K in debt that I was promised would be paid. I would have gladly paid them in the first place if he would have simply asked for my help, but he was too embarrassed.
Unfortunately this situation also ruined our relationship - I don’t even talk to him anymore. I don’t think there is any way to get the loan out of my name, but if anyone has any advice I would appreciate it.
Jon:
I feel for you. I’ve currently got about 17k in school debt, and both of my parents fell short on a few promises.
Every situation is unique, but my solution was to consolidate all student loan debt with Sallie Mae. I was able to negotiate a 15-year term at 7%, even with less-than-perfect credit. My monthly payment is about $200. I was able to avoid going into default by simply calling up my loan companies and telling the truth,
Money aside, the real “cost” is the emotional conflict this has caused. Again, each situation is unique, but my solution was to tell my parents that I was happy to pay off the debt, and to accept that sometimes even “rich” people are bad with money.
Good luck to you.
Zap
Ramsey’s Stupid Tax stories are not related to tax in any way. Check them out at his web site. You’ll find that your Train Wreck series is pretty much the same thing as the Stupid Tax. It all deals with personal financial no-no’s etc.
that is definitely a tough situation Jon. zap’s suggestion of coming to terms or reaching an understanding with the parents can be an approach you may consider; after all, he is your father.
consolidating your loan to a different lender to get a better rate, or negotiating with your current one can also be something you can consider. I’m not too sure what you meant when you said “I don’t think there is any way to get the loan out of my name,” so if you can clarify that, maybe I can point you toward sites with relevant information.
>>Ramsey’s Stupid Tax stories are not related to tax in any way
that’s an interesting sentence, but i presume you mean that “Stupid Tax” = “Tax you pay for being Stupid”, not “Stupidness about doing my Taxes”, right?
Wow, that makes a lot more sense now. Looks like I gotta pay the tax now…