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This summer my husband and I purchased a foreclosed property in a great neighborhood in Michigan. I won't lie -- we got a GREAT deal, and even better, it was a guilt-free situation, where an investor had been scamming the bank/collecting money from tenants (he lost title in September of 07, and they had rent receipts in April of 08), and in general, robbing people.
Part of why we got such a great deal is that the house was in awful shape. So far, we've done foundation work, replaced all the cement (garage floor, driveway, porch, patio, etc.), replaced the roof, the windows, the electrical, the plumbing -- you get the idea. We've gutted the place, and if there is any original drywall left, its only an accident! LOL!
Since we forgot to be born independently wealthy, we've funded this project with a 203k rehabilitation loan. Its been a paperwork nightmare, especially when you consider the end result is going to be around $140K worth of repair, but we keep chanting to ourselves: Its going to be beautiful when its done.
This is a construction loan, with 'guaranteed' funds already in an escrow account, but we still have to either put the money out in advance and wait for reimbursement, or sweet talk our contractors into waiting. Some things can be put on hold, and others can't, which is why we've been using the American Express card -- or been TRYING to use it.
The first problem came when I tried to put the appliances on it. We'd already put about $8,000 on it in the previous weeks, and received a call asking if we were aware that it was getting up there. We assured the caller that things were under control, and explained we were doing a rehab. They marked something on the account (this was a Monday), and that Saturday, rejected the charge for the appliances.
Phone calls ensued -- they said they were using the previous six months balance as a determination, and since so many people were getting in trouble with credit, they were suspending the account until it was paid. (Did I mention it wasn't due for another three weeks???)
The appliances still had to be paid for, but now we had to come up with the cash for them. We juggled the first draw, and delayed paying off the Am Ex people until the second draw since they weren't even due yet. Then we paid them off, and I had a scathing conversation where I inquired as to whether they were going to let me use the card for the cabinets ($6500) or whether I should pay cash. They agreed to 'allow' me to use up to $5,000. I ended up paying cash for the cabinets, and held the $5K in reserve for the other expenses that were going to be happening.
We spent another $2,600 and then I placed an order for a Home Depot delivery ($1,152.67) today. Imagine my surprise when the charge was DECLINED by American Express.
Seems there has been a 'change' in our credit score in the last month (WTF?) and they are not extending credit until our current balance WHICH ISN'T DUE UNTIL NOVEMBER 19th (because it happened on the billing cycle which closes October 19th) is paid -- despite the 'you should be good up until $5,000' conversation LESS THAN THREE WEEKS AGO.
But if we wanted to use it up to the $2,600 amount, we could pay them RIGHT NOW, and they would release the funds for us to 'keep using it' and I *believe* them -- NOT!!!
Did I mention this account has been open since 2000, and has been paid on-time, etc. consistently? Did I mention they keep explaining the problem is that we don't usually run 'large' balances, and they base stuff on the last six months, when we were averaging about $20 per month (but we did use it to the tune of thousands regularly a few years ago)?
Did I mention they are now 'checking' our credit scores monthly, and 'today' was the day it was updated with our 'lower' score (because an account was paid to a zero balance)?
This is me banging my head on a wall. This is me being REALLY pissed off. This is me getting nowhere with American Express.
I've shuffled funds, and we're managing to make things work. We're about three weeks from being done on the rehab, and when we are done, I'll be cutting up the American Express card.
They explained it to me very politely and condescendingly:
There is a credit crunch going on.
We'll go back to paying cash from now on -- BITE ME, AMERICAN EXPRESS!!!
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