Our credit and credit scores are important, right? But unfortunately....

[Zenlitened]

... our lives are in the hands of complete and utter fools.

I'm on the phone with my bank's loan office, trying to complete a home equity loan so I can get a better rate on what's left of my mortgage... and find myself explaining TO THE BANK how loans work.

No, the "current balance" figure on my existing mortgage statement is NOT the same as the loan payoff amount! If I give you that figure and you write a check in that amount, my mortgage company is going to reject it. It's the WRONG amount, because we haven't figured in escrow balances, per diem fees, and other factors.

So here's the thing. I'm sorely tempted to say fuck-it-then and go find a bank that knows its own business. But if I do that, if I walk away from this loan process now, I will have HURT MY OWN CREDIT SCORE. Ya see, applying for credit and not getting it -- for whatever reason -- is held against you for years and years to come.

Even if you yourself say "I don't want your damned loan anymore," the industry will find a way to use it as an excuse to wring a higher rate out of you somewhere down the line. And, worse yet, they'll use it to label you as a "bad person" to whomever else looks at your credit score -- potential employers, business partners, local Morality Police, the neighbor's kid down the street, who's snooping around the bank's incredibly non-secure database. Anybody.

I swear, I have this last little bit of my home mortgage to pay off, in about 7 to 10 years, and then I'm getting OFF THE GRID. Don't wanna play no more. I'll own what I own, I'll pay for what I buy when I buy it. And I'll quit being jerked around by an industry that has the arrogance to set the rules for everyone on the planet, yet lacks the competence to run its own business.

:grr:

</rant>