Couple feel 'robbed' by 25% interest TD car loan

[bootymac]

What's funny is that when I asked the banker that gave me a business loan (vp of commercial lending) about what happened in the banking industry, he told me a little known fact--the US governement was forcing banks to give out loans the banks were not comfortable with. And if they didn't, the government would take action against them.

Interesting. Did you find any sources to back his claim up? This is the first time I've heard about this

[Ronzuki]

I've 'heard' noises like that myself. Think about who comprises the infamous top 1%. Politicians are most definitely in that make-up right along side the financiers. Bottom line, no one held a gun to the sub-prime borrows' heads and said "sign here or else".

[sx4rocious]

Bottom line, no one held a gun to the sub-prime borrows' heads and said "sign here or else".

This is what I'm talking about. Financial responsibility is no longer taught in schools (I had a class called resource management and it was a requirement to graduate). Simple budgeting is a thing of the past. I learned my lesson 7 years ago and am a better person as a result. If I (as in ME and ME alone) think I can afford something, I'm buy it. If THEY (as in someone with a vested intrest in me to make money) says I can afford it and tries to convince me of it, then shame on me for buying into the propoganda. I admit I'm not the most intelligent person in the world, but I do know enough to know MYSELF what I can and can't afford. So do most of the sub-prime borrowers, they just see the "want" and let it outweigh common sense.

When I bought my house, I was told over the phone I was "preapproved for ______." i stopped them mid-sentence and stated "am I preapproved for $XXXXX.XX?" (the actual price of the house) They said "yes, and then some for simple improvements to the house. You can borrow 125% of the value of the house and you are paying much lower than the value of the property." I simply replied "thank you, but I know better than you what I can afford, I just need the sale price please."

I think WAY to many people take the "preapproved to $XXXXXX" to mean "we have a magic formula that says you can afford this amount no matter what you think because we're a big bank and know more about money than you and after all, we have your best intrests in mind." I have no doubt there are preditory lenders out there. The are preditors in every facet of every aspect of life. When prey falls victim to a preditor, it's usually because the victum cannot outsmart, outrun, or outmanuever the preditor. It isn't always the wolves fault they caught the sheep..... (I'm saying this, and I actually WAS the sheep once!! BTW, I don't get caught anymore, lesson learned...)

[SamirD]

Interesting. Did you find any sources to back his claim up? This is the first time I've heard about this

I don't think this is the type of thing that he really wanted to speak frankly about at the time. But he's the type that when asked with a certain level of trust, he'll tell you. He's a very sharp individual that has been with more banks than I can name over his career. He and my dad have a much more in-depth relationship (more loans), and he's always been very straight-forward. I don't have any reason to doubt what he said, especially after he left one bank right before they were taken over and turned into crap (PNC bought RBC). And then moved to a start up bank that is doing quite well right now and provides top-notch service at a time of corner-cutting and nickel and diming.

[fjroman2]

I couldn't possibly read thay whole article, but I got the gist. The thing I don't get is...if you have crappy credit, and you can't afford a cheap car, can you really afford to pay $500/mo for a crappy car?

[SamirD]

Last night at dinner with my wife's boss (who's also Indian like me and her), we started talking about rags to riches stories of people we know. He told us about his close family friend who at one time in the early 1970s walked 2 miles to get groceries. Where there is a will, there is a way. It's certainly not going to be easy, but there's a lot to be learned from the hard times in our lives.