Yesterday I had an appointment with a financial counselor-type person downtown. Although I left in enough time to be 20 minutes early, I got there 20 minutes late (do the math). Downtown Durham is such a clusterfuck of construction that I had to waste that many minutes of my life trying to find a street that is about two blocks long (and one way).
My intentions were to find out whether my debts are excessive, whether they could negotiate some lower interest rates maybe, and any suggestions for creating a liveable budget once my income regulates to more than a very slow trickle of cash in for articles I've sold too cheaply.
98% of the meeting was a waste of my time. I think she probably shut down and went into autopilot once she found out I have a college degree and aren't some schlub who got myself into this situation by being a complete idiot. I sat there watching her plug numbers into a computer program to see if debt consolitation would be a practical way to handle my consumer debt. If you could see the expression on my face right now, you'd know the answer. Not only would I have to pay MORE per month, but they would want to charge me a handling fee for the pleasure of mailing checks for me. No thanks - I have stamps and a mailbox of my own.
She wrote up an action plan for me and the first item was "find job that pays net $220 per week." I have no fucking clue where she got that figure from. That's just for household utilities, gas, baby diapers, and the occasional box of Kleenex, right? 'Cause there's no way in hell I could even afford to work if I was earning that. And, um, daycare? Yeah. Add that figure in, lady.
I should have known I went to the wrong place when instead of the people with the next appointment waiting patiently in the lobby, they knocked on the woman's office door twice and poked their head in to say "Just wanted to let you know we're here." (Yeah, because the walls aren't paper thin and we couldn't hear your loud ass talking out in the waiting room.) Then when I was leaving and the rude woman's girth was in the way of the door, I said "excuse me" because I had to step over feet her a bit. She just looked at me blankly like I was speaking some foreign language that doesn't have courtesy phrases in it. She might have even grunted.
Anyway. I'm pissed. The positive thing is that I got on the ball and shredded four months of old statements and sat down and wrote out the actual total of my debt in preparation of the meeting. That was probably all I needed to do in the first place.
Posted by Tiffany at March 22, 2007 05:45 PM | TrackBackEverything will be OK! You'll see!
Posted by: Flamingo at March 23, 2007 04:24 AMI'm disappointed that didn't go well.
My financial counselor is somewhat lacking in professionalism and it is a bit offputting. Her new "office" is a cube set up in the lobby of an office for two lawyers. They have offices with doors. She has a cube in the lobby. Her assistant has a cube next to hers. Really lacking in privacy.
But the bottom line was that ultimately she did get the work done, so I was willing to overlook some things.
Are you going to look for someone else or just try to take it from here yourself? The hardest part of it all, I think, is negotiating with the credit card companies. I have no doubt that you can budget just fine and can be disciplined about it. But if your interest rates are high, there's only so much one can do.
Would you consider a Prosper loan for the credit cards? I'm thinking about it and have been reading up on people's experiences, but I haven't made the leap yet.
Posted by: Erica at March 23, 2007 11:20 AM