Was it the best way to handle things? Nope. Not at all. Do I recommend my method? Not really. I do recommend people to get on with their lives, hopes and goals. Too often we come up with things we’d like to do if we didn’t have this or that impediment. Do it anyhow.
I was suckered into the “you need a car for this job” routine. Honestly, if your employer says you need a car for your job, consider the notion that they should really provide one in that case. I decided I hated the gig.
I wanted to leave the country, travel, work abroad, see things. I could have stayed at job ell for the next couple of years to get out of being upside down on this rig, but why shorten your life span with stress and hate such a long period of time?
So, I stopped paying on it. I left it on the curb of a quiet street by a friend’s house and gave him the keys and the registration. I told the finance company where they could find it. I went to Canada. Then Morocco. I left no forwarding address. No change of phone number. I gave them an internet phone number and an email address they could contact me at. I took a job in a place with no banking connections to the United States. No way garnish wages. Dirhams are considered “nontransferrable.” You get it traded for Euros or pounds on the black market in the medina of any fairly large city. I don’t think the finance company wanted to go throug hthat process just to get my paltry sum.
I’ve been spending my weeks wandering the Atlas mountains smoking decent hash with Berber shepherds and brushing up on my Tamazight language skills. I work in schools as an English teacher to keep me in djallabas and tajines. Every now and again I wander into an internet cafe and check my email and my skype account. As of recently, there had been calls from the finance company with more and more “urgent tones.” I finallly decided to give them a call, see what was up. It was discussion time. Deal time. We talked about the “horrors” of bad credit. After hte boogie-man stories it turned into Let’s Make a Deal.
The car had been repossessed and auctioned months ago. for them it was cut-loss itme. I could stay here for years and had, well, a mild interest at best in preserving an otherwise fine credit score. I don’t really use it that much. I stopped using credit cards nearly eight years ago after getting out of debt with them. I don’t finance homes or buy lots of things. I don’t really identify with whatever number tha score happens to be. Mostly, i like the diea of there not being soeone out actively looking to bother me, which is what collections agencies do, shold I want to pop into the U.S. at some point. Mostly I just wanted things settled, but wasn’t really on edge about it. We talked. The walk-off price went down. It was like haggling, which I’ve been doing with some of the best merchants in the public markets here. Everything is haggled over here. My final payment diminished from nearly $8,000 to $3,000 and some loose bills and no mention of it on my credit rating. “Deal.” I said.
Done. Paid.
This may be long and rambly, but I firmly beleive that people are better off heading forward toward their objectives and not letting things like a car payment or bills or credit debt or whatever strange paper block is set before them. There are few graceful exits from consumer-obsessed living.
As much as people are addicted to spending beyond their means in the U.S., remember this, the companies that encourage it are far more addicted to a customer base that lives in eternal hock. When you pull the plug they will threaten and scream like a heroin junkie in the throes of withdrawel. They will send heavies after you for it. They hope you’ll cave before they do. Just do the balance sheet. find out how to make settling less expensive for them than pursuit. Dont get greedy, that’s their fault, let them have it. You’ll pay something, some token. Let them feel like they’re paying you some big favor and that you should feel grateful. Know you’ve made it youself, though, and get on with living.
