Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

I went to my bank (Bank of America) and asked them about it. But they had never heard of such a loan (a secured loan). What bank did you do this with, Josh? Regards, Nish

It was actually Barnett Bank which eventually turned into Bank of America. Hmm, strange. Ask them if you can get a loan with an account as collateral since you don't have any credit. I'll see what else I can find out about it. Josh

The Grand Negus wrote:

We've never hidden the fact that our product is for sale.

No kidding?

The Grand Negus wrote:

if he becomes a full-fledged Omsosian living and working together with us, drinking milk from the same cows and eating corn from the same fields

Wow. You couldn't sound more cult-ish.

The Grand Negus wrote:

Where is the hypocrisy in recommending the best we have to offer, on-topic, to someone who is looking for good ideas regarding programming? We wrote the thing for this very purpose; why shouldn't we offer it?

Here we go again.

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JDL-EPM wrote:

We were lucky enough to be burgled (twice) before identity theft was an issue. The second time, the thief came into the bedroom where we were sleeping. Why? Because all our keys, papers, money, etc., were there. It was scary, but my wife woke up and I chased him away.

I hate to turn this into a political discussion, but am I the only one here who thinks that this is a great argument for gun ownership?

It's nothing out of the ordinary to have a misspelled version of your name on your credit report.

When I was 18 my father wanted to help me establish my credit so we went to the bank, and opened a CD (Certificate of Deposit, kinda like a money-market account) in my name in the amount of $2,000. Then I applied for a secured loan ($2,000) solely in my name with the CD as collateral. I made the first two payments and then went back to the bank, paid off the loan completely and closed the CD account. Now I had a loan, albeit secured, in my name on my credit report paid off in three months. The whole thing cost me a little bit of interest on the loan and a penalty for closing the CD too soon. After a couple months when the bank had time to report all this to the credit bureau(s) I wanted to try out my new credit, so I went to buy a car. To my surprise I got the best rate available, and a few weeks later received an offer in the mail for a gold card with a $5,000 credit limit. It's that easy.

As an independent contractor (actually working for my own company, but same as 1099), I have recevied between 50 and 67% in my market and as a full-time W2 employee between 25 and 30%. That's a pretty good example of the difference.