Applied Archeology
Saturday, February 11th, 2023 11:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioSo, Friday was just a Friday. But back at home after work, in the kitchen, Tim and I got to drinking and talking.
And after reminiscing about many things, the conversation came around to my current credit score of 800, and... how exactly I'd acheived that credit score... because I wasn't sure!
And... long story short, we figured out that it was because of a Discover Card that I'd gotten, back in 2013, that I'd charged up... and then abandoned!.. but had accidentally continued to pay the minimum payment, every month, for the past TEN YEARS!
--<>--
When I'd gotten the Discover card, back in 2013, I seem to have set it up for auto-payments, directly out of my bank account.
But then, I ran into financial trouble and abandoned the card... meaning, I intended to just stop paying it and suffer the hit to my credit score, and subesquent persecution by collection agencies for five years until they gave up.
And Mom got sick, and I moved home, and my mailing address, and my email address both changed, and Mom died, and it was a confusing new chapter of my life, living with Dad, and... life went on!
But my bank account never changed, and neither did my phone number.
And I recall that in the early days, I'd see a text from Discover, saying, "Thank you for your payment!" and think, "When did I set up auto pay?
But there was too much else going on to worry about it.
After several months of such texts, I thought, "Hrmmm... maybe if I let this just run, I'll pay off the balance eventually, and they'll leave me alone."
But month after month, and year after year, the texts from Discover kept coming... "Thank you for your payment!"
And... I just tuned them out!
I stopped paying any attention to them, or thinking about them!
--<>--
So it took that conversation with Tim, to get me to finally realize, Wait a second!.. I never abandoned that Discover Card!.. I've been paying it for TEN YEARS!
I checked my texts, and sure enough, on January 14th of this year, there they were, thanking me for another minimum payment!
The actual balance on the card was around $400.00, but... the predatory terms of the card were such that the minimum payment only pays down the interest, and never the balance... meaning, I've paid them some FOUR THOUSAND dollars, over the past ten years, but... still owe the original $400.00!
And that might seem like a terrible mistake!.. but... four grand, over ten years, bought me an 800 credit score!
The way the financial algorithms work, it's a wet dream! A guy with a ten year history of always paying exactly the minimum, exactly on time!
--<>--
With that going on in the background, I did also pay off an entire car, and pay off the gutters for this house, in the recent past.
So, yeah!.. that's why I look like the second coming, to the credit world!
Because I was an idiot, who tried to abandon a Discover card, but accidentally remained super faithful like no other customer in history!
------------{=0=}------------
So, this morning after walking Yvette, I called them and said, "Yeah, I have a card with you from 2013, and I've been getting texts from you, but I don't think you guys have my current mailing address or email."
And the lady on the line said, "Yes! Your account is flagged for us to get your current mailing address! We've been trying and failing to send you mail for years."
So I finally updated my current home address, and email with them, and a new Discover card is on the way!
With that card number, and it's expiration date & CVC, I can log in to the app, and... pay off that goddam $400.00 balance finally... and then possibly renegotiate the terms, and request a limit increase!
And if I do that, and I get the limit increase, but don't use the card anymore... then... MY CREDIT SCORE SHOULD GO HIGHER!
--<>--
Again, an 800 credit score is... retired septegenarian levels of astronomical. It's not a score that a man my age is supposed to have!
Another part of that is that I never married or had kids, but instead chose the alternate path of looking after my aging father instead... which is also how I inherited the house.
I've had way more financial stability than guys my age normally have!
That bank account always managed to have enough, over the past ten years, for Discover to take their minimum payment on the 14th of the month... without my feeling it!
So... yeah!.. path less taken!
Don't knock it 'till you try it!
------------{=0=}------------
The other thing I did with my Saturday was, I got the shelves repainted and rehung in the kitchen in their original location, between the kitchen door and the window on that same, south wall.
Turns out these shelves were custom made to fit into that space... such that I had to use a rubber mallet to pound them into the space between door and window jambs, on that wall.
But once it was in place, and secured with a couple screws, I hung my new red coffee cups from hooks on the lower side of the upper shelf... evenly spaced and centered.
And then we also mounted on the higher walls of the southwest corner of the kitchen, some heirlooms recovered from the basement: my great great grandfather's block plane, and draw plane tools, my great grandmother's rug beater, and my grandmother's 1920s GE electric fan, on top of the fridge, in the corner.
The whole display; shelves, with hanging red cups, higher mounted tools, and the 100 year old fan in the corner... all really help to give the kitchen that diner feel I've been going for... but also provide historical context that explains why the room itself... is as it is.
It's old... and was built using these old tools... and previous generations used rug beaters in this house, or ran early electric fans to stay cool. It's NOT a modern house!
And with that context on the walls... the whole kitchen is suddenly justified... and makes sense... and feels a lot more charming and comfortable!
Let's call it... ghost credit!
As the 5th generation owner of this house, I'm honoring the previous four generations, and... getting on the good side of four generations of ghosts!
That, and the credit score have gotta mean... I'll be okay here!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
And after reminiscing about many things, the conversation came around to my current credit score of 800, and... how exactly I'd acheived that credit score... because I wasn't sure!
And... long story short, we figured out that it was because of a Discover Card that I'd gotten, back in 2013, that I'd charged up... and then abandoned!.. but had accidentally continued to pay the minimum payment, every month, for the past TEN YEARS!
When I'd gotten the Discover card, back in 2013, I seem to have set it up for auto-payments, directly out of my bank account.
But then, I ran into financial trouble and abandoned the card... meaning, I intended to just stop paying it and suffer the hit to my credit score, and subesquent persecution by collection agencies for five years until they gave up.
And Mom got sick, and I moved home, and my mailing address, and my email address both changed, and Mom died, and it was a confusing new chapter of my life, living with Dad, and... life went on!
But my bank account never changed, and neither did my phone number.
And I recall that in the early days, I'd see a text from Discover, saying, "Thank you for your payment!" and think, "When did I set up auto pay?
But there was too much else going on to worry about it.
After several months of such texts, I thought, "Hrmmm... maybe if I let this just run, I'll pay off the balance eventually, and they'll leave me alone."
But month after month, and year after year, the texts from Discover kept coming... "Thank you for your payment!"
And... I just tuned them out!
I stopped paying any attention to them, or thinking about them!
So it took that conversation with Tim, to get me to finally realize, Wait a second!.. I never abandoned that Discover Card!.. I've been paying it for TEN YEARS!
I checked my texts, and sure enough, on January 14th of this year, there they were, thanking me for another minimum payment!
The actual balance on the card was around $400.00, but... the predatory terms of the card were such that the minimum payment only pays down the interest, and never the balance... meaning, I've paid them some FOUR THOUSAND dollars, over the past ten years, but... still owe the original $400.00!
And that might seem like a terrible mistake!.. but... four grand, over ten years, bought me an 800 credit score!
The way the financial algorithms work, it's a wet dream! A guy with a ten year history of always paying exactly the minimum, exactly on time!
With that going on in the background, I did also pay off an entire car, and pay off the gutters for this house, in the recent past.
So, yeah!.. that's why I look like the second coming, to the credit world!
Because I was an idiot, who tried to abandon a Discover card, but accidentally remained super faithful like no other customer in history!
So, this morning after walking Yvette, I called them and said, "Yeah, I have a card with you from 2013, and I've been getting texts from you, but I don't think you guys have my current mailing address or email."
And the lady on the line said, "Yes! Your account is flagged for us to get your current mailing address! We've been trying and failing to send you mail for years."
So I finally updated my current home address, and email with them, and a new Discover card is on the way!
With that card number, and it's expiration date & CVC, I can log in to the app, and... pay off that goddam $400.00 balance finally... and then possibly renegotiate the terms, and request a limit increase!
And if I do that, and I get the limit increase, but don't use the card anymore... then... MY CREDIT SCORE SHOULD GO HIGHER!
Again, an 800 credit score is... retired septegenarian levels of astronomical. It's not a score that a man my age is supposed to have!
Another part of that is that I never married or had kids, but instead chose the alternate path of looking after my aging father instead... which is also how I inherited the house.
I've had way more financial stability than guys my age normally have!
That bank account always managed to have enough, over the past ten years, for Discover to take their minimum payment on the 14th of the month... without my feeling it!
So... yeah!.. path less taken!
Don't knock it 'till you try it!
The other thing I did with my Saturday was, I got the shelves repainted and rehung in the kitchen in their original location, between the kitchen door and the window on that same, south wall.
Turns out these shelves were custom made to fit into that space... such that I had to use a rubber mallet to pound them into the space between door and window jambs, on that wall.
But once it was in place, and secured with a couple screws, I hung my new red coffee cups from hooks on the lower side of the upper shelf... evenly spaced and centered.
And then we also mounted on the higher walls of the southwest corner of the kitchen, some heirlooms recovered from the basement: my great great grandfather's block plane, and draw plane tools, my great grandmother's rug beater, and my grandmother's 1920s GE electric fan, on top of the fridge, in the corner.
The whole display; shelves, with hanging red cups, higher mounted tools, and the 100 year old fan in the corner... all really help to give the kitchen that diner feel I've been going for... but also provide historical context that explains why the room itself... is as it is.
It's old... and was built using these old tools... and previous generations used rug beaters in this house, or ran early electric fans to stay cool. It's NOT a modern house!
And with that context on the walls... the whole kitchen is suddenly justified... and makes sense... and feels a lot more charming and comfortable!
Let's call it... ghost credit!
As the 5th generation owner of this house, I'm honoring the previous four generations, and... getting on the good side of four generations of ghosts!
That, and the credit score have gotta mean... I'll be okay here!
°¦}
