My credit rating is so sucky that when I applied for an apartment over the weekend the realtors told me they need a second deposit (of $475 -- which I'm not even close to having) before they would hand over the keys to me. As a counter-offer, I proposed to have my father cosign on the apartment with me which would require a $30 application/credit check.
Now they also offered to let me pay the second deposit in three not-so-easy payments of $158.
So the question is this: is it worth it to just spend the thirty bucks that I won't see again or pay the extra $475 (in segments) that would put me in more of a pinch now but I will get back later?
anthony [email] said at 10:31 PM 09-18-2006: pay the 30 bucks now, don't screw your father over, and work on getting your credit back to where it needs to be.
anthony [email] said at 10:35 AM 09-19-2006: I wasn't saying that your intent was to screw your father over, or that you had a previous history of screwing anyone over. I merely was saying don't do it in any event.
myriam [email] said at 12:03 PM 09-19-2006: boy, seems like nobody can bring out the techiness like you for some reason... everyone just loves to pick apart your words!
reggie [email] said at 12:03 AM 09-19-2006: that's what I want to do because it is just thirty bucks. But even my dad (who's known for being quite frugal--a trait I often wish I'd picked) was thinking it might be a better idea to pay the $475 since that would come back rather than pay $30 bucks that we won't see again.
mary [email] said at 10:53 AM 09-19-2006: Well, technically no, since by the time you got back that $475, it would be worth less than it's worth now thanks to inflation. Plus there's no guarantee you would get the full amount back. There's always the chance that the apartment could be damaged, for reasons beyond your control.
reggie [email] said at 11:27 PM 09-19-2006: Up until my most recent living sitch in DC I've always gotten my deposits back. In my two first living situations (in Tenleytown and in SW) we all got our deposits back and when I left Philly I got mine back.
I suppose holding all my landlords' children as hostages probably helped grease the situation a bit though.
jake [email] said at 11:16 AM 09-19-2006: Some states and cities require landlords to bank the security deposits in a savings account and return them with appropriate interest to offset inflation.
shelly [email] said at 11:23 AM 09-19-2006: But even in places where this is the law, landlords rarely do it and renters rarely have the resources to fight with them about it.
mary [email] said at 2:16 PM 09-19-2006: Exactly. Also, the landlord has no incentive to put the money in an account that actually pays a decent amount of interest. Most likely, it'll be earning about 1 percent -- below the rate of inflation -- in some interest-paying checking account, whereas you could have stuck that money in a CD and gotten 5 percent. And then, really, are you going to take the landlord to small claims court over $50 in interest?
The cost of handing over all that money to the landlord for a deposit looks even more wretched if you could have put that money toward high-interest debt.
jake [email] said at 8:31 PM 09-19-2006: It's true that the bargaining power is rarely in the hands of the renter; it's also true that if the law is on your side, you can serve your land lord with a notice after you sign the lease...
dave [email] said at 1:48 PM 09-19-2006: Wow, someone needs to give you a lesson on the time value of money. $475 held for how long? As opposed to dumping $30 today.
jake [email] said at 8:25 PM 09-19-2006: The good lord knows I try not to swipe at people,
but that's a pretty reductionist and condescending, and dismissive comment.
reggie [email] said at 1:30 AM 09-20-2006: What part of THIS PAYING THE DOUBLE DEPOSIT INSTEAD OF DUMPING THE THIRTY BUCKS WAS MY DAD'S IDEA don't you understand?
brianbibbly [email] said at 8:54 AM 09-19-2006: Good luck bro. I know how this feels. I had to rob peter to pay paul to pay my way through college and law school. I've felt the detrimental credit effects for years. It sucks, but Anthony's badly worded advice is good. You can't worry about how bad your credit is now, but only put yourself on a plan to slowly dig out of the hole, and it will take forever. Head up. Like my mother always says, "Hey, the bill collectors can't kill ya!"
reggie [email] said at 10:01 AM 09-19-2006: You can't worry about how bad your credit is now, but only put yourself on a plan to slowly dig out of the hole, and it will take forever
Thanks dude. I'm not worried so much about how bad my credit it is because I've known for a while now that it's not too kosher.
It's kinda frustrating, though, when you'd like to take steps to correct your credit yet no one will give you the opportunity to do so.
I've gotten by thus far with the same sucky (or for a while non-existent)credit so I'm always looking forward to just getting on with the next thing. Right now that means this apartment.
jake [email] said at 11:19 AM 09-19-2006: The good news is that if your credit score is quite bad, the first big moves you make will jump your score up to average pretty quickly.
Paying old debt, keeping all payments current, you can see 100 point gains over night. Then, when you want to move up into the above average/high range, it gets trickier and improvements are more marginal. Ephemeral, even...
anthony [email] said at 10:53 AM 09-19-2006: Only if the utilities are in his name and he's not late on payments. I know that the three credit reporting agencies check your utility payments, but I'm gonna say no on rent unless the apartment is owned by a company and not an individual.
mary [email] said at 10:58 AM 09-19-2006: Hmmm. My credit report makes no mention of my utility payment history, which is completely positive. But I know if I *didn't* pay them, and it rolled into collections, the negative stuff would show up.
mary [email] said at 10:55 AM 09-19-2006: Nope. Good rental history is rarely reported to the credit agencies. But bad histories sometimes are, if the landlord wants to go to the trouble to send the unpaid rent amount to collections.
But much like insurance companies, landlords like to use credit scores as proxies for your overall responsibility.
craig [email] said at 11:31 AM 09-19-2006: Almost everywhere in Phoenix runs a background check before they rent to you. A lot of places even run a criminal background check.
In NYC, places will run credit checks, Even if you pass that you still have to put down first months rent, last months rent, and a security deposit equal to one or two times rent. If your place was in the neighborhood of $1500/month, you could wind up forking over $6000 just to move into a place. Scary. Also scary would be moving out and hoping you get $4500 back in deposits. I have to say, though that in NYC I found most of my landlords gave me my deposits back.
kara [email] said at 3:23 PM 09-19-2006: That would suck!
But I bet Blue Ocean DOES require credit checks and extra deposits and stuff... I went through Sommers in 2000.
neilbert said at 6:42 PM 09-19-2006: Our landlord in CA tried to say that we did not have the house clean when we left (we did, I cleaned it damn good) and tried to withhold a good portion of the deposit for "cleaning fees." Well, fortunately, I took video and photos before I turned in the keys to the house, which showed the house fully clean and in order, with no damage. Even then he would not relent, even though he knew my roommate was a lawyer who just won two high profile cases. This drug on for about a month and a half and we waited because there was a newly passed law in Santa Barbara county to protect renters because of all of the rampant landlord fraud. Pretty much it states that if the landlord is proven to have kept a deposit for no legitimate reason, then the tenant can automatically get three times the amount of the deposit in damages AND the deposit back. The a-hole finally relented just as my lawyer roommate was going to file in court.
myriam [email] said at 6:56 PM 09-19-2006: Yeah, treble damages is common in the places I've lived for landlord disputes. Also, landlord disputes of any amount can be settled in small claims court, which means you can represent yourself (no lawyer's fees).
