Just an update. After 2 weeks and trying some 100 places (became a fun hobby), majority soft checks, even though there were way too many hard checks done, I got two offers. I even tried getting credit and couldn't qualify for anything more than a $400 Indigo card with a $75 annual fee, so $325 in credit. I did get offers for some $300 limit cards but they were like $99 processing fee, $75 annual fee, and $10 a month processing fee. So it was like $195 a year for $300 credit, crazy. I'd do secured any day over those two offers.
I think the most annoying thing out of this entire process was I was talking to a credit union that turned me down and the person I spoke to said I'd have no problem paying off a $20k loan with my income and my situation isn't that bad, my payment history is alright, my DTI isn't that bad. I'm like, if nothing is that bad then why can't I even get a $3k loan let alone the $20k I was requesting. I wouldn't even try when I was making $30k a year, I knew no one would give me anything, but at my current income I thought I'd have a better chance, but nope. The credit report is it and that has nothing to do with income. That is rough when you're making $30-50k and in a bind. I was just lucky to have friends and family that supported me, but now I have a large amount of debt I owe.
But it was a fun journey. Denied by pretty much everyone. There was one credit union with a legitimate offer to take a chance on me with $5k BUT only way they would give me $5k was if I proved that I removed the delinquent on my credit report. So essentially pay $3300 for the $5k. But the good news is after I talked to them they did send me a counter offer of $8300 but they would apply the $3300 to the delinquent first, which is perfectly fine. I told them they could even transfer the $5k to one of my debts, but they said they wouldn't. So cross my fingers, the membership hasn't been approved, and even though the papers are signed by me, I haven't gotten official approval of it.
I'm not speaking for myself just my thoughts in general, but I wish there was a way for people who get an increase in income to get a loan specifically to clean up issues they had when they didn't have income. That way they clean up all their bad debt and have a nice structured debt for the future. It was an eye opening experience, really fun learning the system, but frustrating. Out of probably 100+ companies tried from credit cards, to credit unions, to mainstream places, to even couple tribal lenders, 4 were willing to take a chance. Net Credit at 97% APR, Upstart at 34% APR, one credit union said they would pay off the $3.3k delinquent for 18% APR, and the other credit union has an offer of $8.3k with $3.3k them transferring to the delinquent at 15% APR. Rough rough system, just nothing available when screw up, even when you try to fix those mistakes. And once again that's just my opinion on the system, I understand personal responsibility and at the end of the day it was my fault and the banks don't owe me anything.
The one thing I don't understand though is with how competitive the market is and the fact the point of lending is to make a profit, why there is not more effort to use income. I mean it just makes very simple sense to me that someone who struggles paying debt with no employment might be more successful paying debt with employment. But maybe that's not true. I don't know. All I know is I'll pay this loan off and hopefully build a successful relationship with this credit union.
