Geez, what a nightmare. Why can't people just be honest and treat others like they'd like to be treated? I just don't get it, it's not that hard. I really wanted to bid on some beautiful RL bedding, a rare style, but I really had to read between the lines and push to get info. Apparently with the shams the seller mentioned although never used, she did launder one "by mistake", but it went right back in the package. Saw no logic in that whatsoever... Since it was cotton and lace (delicate), I wondered if she dried it (which would ruin it). I emailed her asking if the washed sham had been distorted or shrank as a result. No reply. I wait a few days, auction is nearing and end, and basically email her a 'hey, I'd really like to bid, but have not received a reply to my question so I'm giving it one more try here.' That generated a response from her, she admitted that the laundered sham was 'snug' and corners 'curled', but suggested ironing would make it fit properly again. Good grief. (She failed to include that significant detail in her description, even after I asked, she didn't post my question and her answer.) Very cat and mouse. I'm glad I took time to push it, because although it was a beautiful set I might well be out the $, and it would be worthless with only one good sham (and it garnered pretty high $$). I'm watching to see what kind of feedback occurs once the buyer receives it. Anyway, back to valinsv's guy. Clearly there are major issues with some items he sells. Is he too ignorant to realize that having integrity would only bolster his business that much more? That's the part I just don't get. Treat people right, they'll keep coming back. Treat them badly as a habit and sooner or later he's going to lose. Seems to me with the type of volume he does he'd be a lot further ahead if he'd just be honest. Just curious mona if you might know: if he does get kicked off, is his IP address banned, or just his ebay ID? He seems to have such a huge system set up and selling high volume, can't see him just walking away. Could he just come back under a new ID? (Although given his business and volume and listing style, it would be easy to recognize it might be him.)

Scarlett, I don't think anyone has intended to give you "breezy advice", so I too am sorry if I have contributed to your hurt feelings. DH and I have been through several periods of difficult times. When we were first married, he didn't tell me he had debts from his previous marriage that he had walked off from when he joined the Navy. We returned to the same area after his discharge, and his creditors found us after we had acquired some cheap furniture and a car, on credit. Let's just say, at that time, "The Honeymoon was Over". The unexpected debt put us in dire straits because by that time we had a two-year-old and an infant. The car was totally an unwise purchase. DH wanted it so badly and he and the car dealer ganged up on me. I could've been the bad guy and refused to sign, but DH was getting lots of overtime at his job and I was lulled into a false sense of security at the ripe old age of 23. Of course the overtime dried up soon after. Then the car payment took all of one week's pay and then some. Shortly after that, there was a trucker's strike (this was in 1970) and DH was certain he would be laid off. So instead of waiting for the inevitable, he drove from KS to IN, where his brother lived, because his brother told him jobs were easy to find there and they paid higher. What he neglected to say was that the standard of living was somewhat higher there, too. DH found a job there and a house to rent, so we piled our meager belongings into a U-Haul trailer and moved. I was not one to run out on debts, so our landlord was paid what we owed and we notified our debtors of our new address. Of course this did not solve our financial troubles. It took me far away from my family and put us in an area where snow is on the ground from before Halloween to Mother's Day. We discovered our landlord was an alcoholic who was given to coming to my door and screaming at me for some imagined offense. His wife would let herself in while we were gone (they lived next door) and inspect, and leave me nasty notes. But I digress. I take the credit for getting us out of debt. I went to the library and checked out everything I could find about how to save money. One of the books I remember well was "Champaigne Living on a Beer Budget". It was then that I learned about how credit works, among other things. That first winter, I made my son's coat out of DH's Navy dress uniform. My daughter's coat was made from mine, as I had found a coat for myself at a yard sale. My mother had given me a bag of fabric scraps and I made my kids' clothes from that. I didn't have many clothes but I wore what I had. DH, for his job, had to have matching twill pants and shirts and steel-toe boots, so that took a chunk out of his pay. The first thing that I did with my new-found training, was to contact each creditor and ask them what was the least they would take to cancel the contract. I was surprised that they all had an amount right on the tip of their tongue. One of them quoted a realistic amount, that I could meet by arranging with the bank that held the car loan to just pay the interest for a couple of months. I shut everything down that I could. We ate a lot of macaroni and beans, drank nonfat dry milk. DH had no room to complain because they were, after all, his debts and he was in a long-term doghouse as it was. Getting the first creditor paid off was the hardest, but it was the "chink in the armor". With that payment off our backs, I was able to double up on the payments for another creditor, specifying that additional payment was to go ON THE PRINCIPAL ONLY. Before long, I had another one paid off. That following summer, we had enough money that I could use $20 every other Saturday at yard sales. When my $20 was gone, I was done. But I managed to buy, through that summer, jeans and coats and shoes for my kids, toys for the coming Christmas, tools for DH. When the magic day came that the car was paid off, it was like Christmas to me. Gradually we got on our feet. We bought a mobile home on credit and moved into a trailer park. It was our own home and the payment and lot rent was less than the rent we had been paying. Plus it was closer to DH's work. Then he was laid off. Then our son had an illness that landed him in the hospital and us with no insurance. DH got another job. He took a second job at a gas station. I used my skills to get things paid off. But it was hard because he still just "didn't get it". He thought he deserved something for all the hard work he was doing and kept buying things on credit: color TV's, expensive fishing equipment that he hardly used, an El Camino. I refused what I could, and we fought almost constantly. At one point it looked like our marriage was over. I was so sick and tired of being poor and him not taking it seriously. I took the kids and moved back to where my family was. He ended up selling what little we had and following, and we managed to patch things up, but it meant we were starting over again financially. I was able to get a job that paid pretty well, so at last we were able to have two incomes, but it meant the kids, by then 11 and 12, had no one at home with them. They got into so much mischief. If the neighbors weren't complaining, the kids were tattling on each other. But we were able to scrape together enough to buy a house in an older neighborhood that was not far from work for either of us. As time wore on, I doubled up on the house payments to shorten the length of our loan. Eventually I had the house paid off. We saved $17,000 in interest. Neither of our kids went to college. Our daughter dropped out of high school and our son, though he graduated, was not college material. DD made me a grandmother at the age of 42, and then didn't take her maternal responsibilities seriously, so we threw money at that problem for awhile. Then DH began having trouble with his knees and we discovered he had degenerative arthritis. Not long after, he became disabled. I had quit working, so I had to go find a job again. Shortly after that, it became clear we were going to have to adopt the grandsons. Then our son started having panic attacks and we had to throw money at that for awhile. And now, here we are. DH is 65 and I am 62. He has finally been able to have surgery, recovered well and is getting around better. Our grandsons are 18 and 19. The 19YO will graduate from HS this spring. The other is with DD and will probably drop out, not having applied himself and having nearly enough credits to be able to graduate any time soon. DS has managed to recover. We bought a small house that he lives in. He pays us an agreed amount every month and the house will be his soon. DD has just had bariatric surgery and then lost her job, so she is now looking for another. We bought another small house that she may end up having to move into for awhile. We are considering offering her the same opportunity to own a home that we offered DS. Neither of them have good credit so a conventional loan is out of the question for both. It seems everyone has to learn how to manage their money the hard way. But we are not in bad shape, considering all. We owe no debts. We own our own home plus the two little houses, free and clear. We own one recent-model extended cab pick-up. Signed our 12YO pick-up, that was well cared for, over to DGS that lives with us. We have money in the bank. I am now retired. My retirement check starts this month. It's not huge, but it's more than I thought it would be. Sorry for the length of this, but it illustrates the ups and downs of life. There have been times when I thought we were in such a horrible financial mess that we would never be able to recover. But we did. It took some know-how, but mostly just dogged determination. I shed many tears of hopelessness and frustration, spent many sleepless nights of worry. So trust me when I say "live within your means" and "Pay off all your creditors", I speak from experience. There is nothing breezy about it.

I'm out of the shadows again on this one. 600 is not that great considering sub prime lending can start at 650. But at her age, she is just building experience on her file. The FICO algorithm models for the likelihood of delinquency within 24 months, so the factors going into that calculation correspond with the model value. The only way to improve credit score is to have credit activity. And installment credit is considered more favorable than revolving credit. Also impacting interest rates and loan approval is the ability to pay. Permanent employment is less risky than sub work, so you get a more risky loan for a higher rate. That only changes when you have a consigner who reduces the risk. My first solo car loan came with a 10% rate in the early 90's. Living debt free is great. However few people can afford a home with cash, at least where I live. Establishing credit with 7% interest on a $5,000 auto loan makes a lot more sense when you decide to buy a home with a 30 year amortized loan at a less favorable rate based on your lower credit score. Finally, there are several industry modifiers available with FICO, auto being one. So the version of your score the dealer pulls is different than the one you receive when you go online. And many lenders will have custom models that may, or may not, act as an overlay to FICO. They model for a number of factors including delinquency, bankruptcy and retention. FICO is to credit modeling as Kleenex is to tissue. Although I know the deal is done, I thought this might add some clarification for others.....Just some additional information for consideration from experience.

We had a disappointing experience with Amex. It was charged with the purchase of a very expensive large TV from an internet store in Italy! The card is rarely used and had not been used for a year or so when the charge was allowed through. It should have been flagged immediately and blocked but it was not. It appeared on our bill. We notified them immediately and requested it be removed immediately. And why exactly did it happen in the first place. They did not agree to remove it immediately. They had to do an investigation! A purchase for a TV in Italy delivered to a place in Italy! That made no sense at all. It took a month or so to finally get them to remove it. I mean the TV had to be delivered somewhere! Follow the TV! It really soured us to Amex. Their employee agreed it should have never made it to our account.