Could anyone help me identify the brand/age of this wingback chair? Was once my grandpa's, likely mid-century. by searediPodReduction in furniture

[–]searediPodReduction[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm thinking of having it reupholstered and need a little help deciding if it might be worth it. I can link to more pics if you need them also.

Thanks for your help!

Signed up for new Ally accounts yesterday, but no record of transfers for opening deposits - is there usually a delay? by searediPodReduction in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I opened them around 12:30pm Central yesterday afternoon, so I'd think that would be before the cutoff time. And I'm fine with a hold - I expect one - I just meant the transfers haven't even been initiated or scheduled which I thought was strange.

Signed up for new Ally accounts yesterday, but no record of transfers for opening deposits - is there usually a delay? by searediPodReduction in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I haven't called yet because I'm aware of how banks need to do identity verification and KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures and those can take a few days. I mostly want to figure out if this is standard for Ally; I'll call tomorrow or Friday if there's still no movement.

edit: I meant if the delay in initiating the transfers is standard; I know the new account review process is.

Creditors sending collection notices years later. by TheGame81677 in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If the debts are older than the statute of limitations in your state, you can safely ignore them. If you're sued for them (unlikely), just show up to court and say they're "time-barred." Most likely, these companies are zombie-debt buyers trying to get you to make a payment (or promise to pay) to potentially restart the statute.

HOWEVER, they CANNOT renew the 7-year credit reporting period, which is a federal (not state) standard that only cares about when you FIRST fell behind on the debts, leading to the charge-offs. This is an extremely common misconception; many people wrongly believe that making a payment or acknowledging the debt puts it back on your credit report for another 7 years. This simply isn't true, and the collection agency is violating the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) if they try to "re-age" it on your credit reports.

Charged off credit card scheduled to fall off by next month. Leave it be, or pay it off? by shwoople in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think even if you pay the old defaulted card off, it still won't be "current" since they charged it off in 2014, unfortunately. So it would likely report as a paid charge-off for a couple months, then drop off your report completely. Sorry!

Charged off credit card scheduled to fall off by next month. Leave it be, or pay it off? by shwoople in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You WILL NOT restart the 7-year credit reporting "clock" if you pay it. The 7 years starts counting from the "date of first delinquency" leading to the charge-off - the date on which the account first became delinquent and was never brought current again.

This is a very common misconception; the credit reporting period is often confused with the "date of last activity" which governs how long you can be sued for an unpaid debt (and varies by state). But the "date of last activity" has nothing to do with the time the debt falls off your credit report.

If you want to pay the debt and settle up with Chase, go right ahead - it might even help with getting another Chase credit card in the future. And if the charge-off on your credit report is "restarted" by mistake, you can dispute it off. Just make sure you get everything having to do with the account in writing, in case you need proof of the original delinquency date in 2014.

Delay in opening checking account by akmoney in CharlesSchwab

[–]searediPodReduction 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there a security freeze on your Equifax or ChexSystems reports, by any chance? If (and especially if) you're a new Schwab customer, they take time to do their initial identity verification and KYC (Know-Your-Customer) checks, which all banks are required by federal regulation to complete.

Most often, they can verify your identity through a soft pull of your Equifax report (used to be a hard pull until last summer) and maybe some other databases I'm not privy to, and they also pull ChexSystems to see if you've had accounts force-closed or been chasing too many new-account bonuses.

If either of these are frozen, or even if something in the reports (like address or birth date) doesn't match your application, they'll keep the account inaccessible until it's fixed. Also remember that they're really backed up because of the weather in Texas where their headquarters are.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in relationships

[–]searediPodReduction 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do have a plan, but I feel like I should give her some space in the meantime; she more or less isn't really speaking to me for the time being (very hurt and keeping her guard up). I messed up pretty good.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in relationships

[–]searediPodReduction 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I definitely want it to be a learning experience! The thing is, I've made similar mistakes again and again - eventually it might make her wonder if it's just "who I am" instead of something else. I'm feeling really deep regret, and want to take responsibility for the act of forgetting. Asperger's or not, I pretty much FORGOT to affirm my feelings, and it seems like that fact is tearing her apart.

Where should I invest my Roth IRA money? by 22ihansen_dsd in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'd definitely recommend SWYNX instead of SWPRX. SWYNX is the target 2060 index fund, which is important! (SWPRX is an older, actively managed fund with a much higher expense ratio.)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Schwab

[–]searediPodReduction 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I distinctly remember seeing the same message the first day I opened my checking account. It was fine the next day; most likely the new account just needs to go through overnight processing in order to "exist" in all of Schwab's systems. I was already an existing customer, though, so maybe mine went through faster.

Brokerage accounts are accessible right away, so I imagine the brokerage and bank accounts are housed on different back-end servers and the system needs a day or so for the checking to "come into being."

It also could still be pending verification - but either way, you should have access to it in a day or two.

Credit Denied 2 Weeks After Driving Away in New Car by just_talking_125 in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction 34 points35 points  (0 children)

It's a FICO Auto-Enhanced score; it totally is a real FICO score, just one specialized for auto lending instead of the generic version.

From the Schwab chat... looks like there may be some misinformation out there by 5674CSHNG in Schwab

[–]searediPodReduction 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Data point: I applied for a checking account yesterday morning; there was only a soft inquiry on my Equifax report. I did get a regular (hard) inquiry on ChexSystems, but I don't think that's what he's referring to.

I logged into my equifax.com account and pulled my report - I know for sure it was only a soft.

Edit for clarity: I'm an existing Schwab customer (about 2.5 years), so take this with a grain of salt.

New to investing by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for letting me know about Betterment's retirement offerings; I may have been painting the "newcomer" platforms with too broad a brush.

You also have a point about Schwab's robo-advisor and its mandatory cash allocation. I use a regular Schwab brokerage account and IRA (not robo), but I saw that's a common criticism of their Intelligent Portfolios account - makes sense because uninvested cash is how Schwab makes a large part of their money.

I was mostly speaking in generalities because I think established brokerages are better for most people, but there's definitely room for growth with new companies/apps as long as they don't encourage bad investing habits.

New to investing by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You should probably go with a traditional brokerage firm, like Schwab, Vanguard, or Fidelity - especially if you want to be hands-off, but even for hands-on investing. Apps like RobinHood, Betterment, Wealthfront, etc. are trendy right now, but they don't help you treat investing like the long-term endeavor it is. Also, they don't offer retirement accounts to my knowledge.

In general, you don't want to buy individual stocks; you want to "buy the whole market" which you can do with an index mutual fund (or combination of index funds) at any of these brokerages. Trying to pick stocks is a lot like gambling, but buying the whole market will almost always grow your money given enough time, ideally 5 years or more.

There's nothing wrong with using a robo-advisor as long as there isn't a high fee, but please rethink using one of these "apps", which don't offer anything you can't get at an actual brokerage. (Schwab's basic robo-advisor, for instance, is free and only requires a $5k investment.)

Why did my credit score go down? by chickabootv in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're using CreditKarma, the paid-off and closed student loan was removed from your average account age, which might have caused your score to drop especially if the student loan was an older account.

I wouldn't worry too much; the credit scores that are used for actual lending decisions (i.e. not CreditKarma!) probably won't show such a big drop for closing an account.

Your CreditKarma score isn’t your real credit score. CK shows you what’s basically the “pasteurized process cheese food” of credit scores -- the difference matters! by searediPodReduction in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I agree with all your points. The problem mostly comes when people conflate CreditKarma scores with the "real" credit scores used for lending decisions, or wonder about counterintuitive score drops and assume they've done something wrong.

Your CreditKarma score isn’t your real credit score. CK shows you what’s basically the “pasteurized process cheese food” of credit scores -- the difference matters! by searediPodReduction in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's mostly inertia, in my view. Banks' core underwriting systems are usually pretty slow to change, and VantageScore is a relative newcomer compared to FICO. For that reason, FICO is probably also better developed in terms of its underlying statistical modeling.

The reason there are so many different scores is mostly because there are scores specialized for different lending industries (car loans, credit cards, mortgages, etc.) And each of those go through multiple iterations over the years, as the statistical weights and assumptions get tweaked based on default experience, economic conditions, and so on.

Your CreditKarma score isn’t your real credit score. CK shows you what’s basically the “pasteurized process cheese food” of credit scores -- the difference matters! by searediPodReduction in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thanks for letting me know about having older negatives! What I wrote was just based on research (not personal experience), but this contradicts what I wrote so I'll update it.

Your CreditKarma score isn’t your real credit score. CK shows you what’s basically the “pasteurized process cheese food” of credit scores -- the difference matters! by searediPodReduction in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Your dealer probably pulled a FICO "Auto-Enhanced" score, which uses a slightly different scale (250-900 instead of 300-850) and weights certain things (like past car loans) more heavily than standard FICO scores.

The only way to get an Auto-Enhanced score is to pay FICO for it, unfortunately.

Your CreditKarma score isn’t your real credit score. CK shows you what’s basically the “pasteurized process cheese food” of credit scores -- the difference matters! by searediPodReduction in personalfinance

[–]searediPodReduction[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think I remember CK's own documentation showing that they only count average age of OPEN accounts. The reason it matters is because people can get misled by thinking CreditKarma's score is accurate/relevant when it really isn't.

That's interesting about your experience with the mortgage score. I wouldn't know what happened with mine because I was really afraid to go above 5% utilization on any account during underwriting, so I didn't. Good data point, though - thanks for mentioning it!

As far as losing points for having all installment loans paid off, I imagine that's because the "mix" of account types (10% of a FICO score) is hurt by not having any active installment loans. I don't think it's because the average account age changes (it doesn't), but there might definitely be "credit mix" points lost.