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^^ Bruin is the featured model today, because her expression encapsulates what we all feel when we are stressed about money.
I’m filing this post under the “convalescence” category because although it can be applied to affording couture & culture, I think it definitely impacts mental health.
A few years ago, I had my identity stolen. At first, I didn’t realize how deeply it was going to affect my life because in the beginning, my debit card was the only thing compromised (that I noticed, anyway). Although not ideal, I was able to rectify the debit card situation quickly & my bank refunded me the money that had been taken. It wasn’t until I started receiving phone calls & letters from random creditors & looked at my credit report, that I saw just how bad things were.
I was completely taken aback because truthfully, I hadn’t fully utilized MY OWN credit. I hadn’t taken out anything besides car loans, and only had two credit cards. *This was mostly because I know MYSELF, and having anymore credit cards than that would’ve been a TERRIBLE idea. There would have been waaaay too much temptation there to use them. I remember wondering why out of all people, I WAS targeted considering I’m sure there was people out there with better scores.
Learn from my naivety, darlings. ANYONE can become a victim of identity theft.
The long journey to repairing my credit & educating myself THOROUGHLY on how to prevent this from happening ever again, had begun. (While mentally preparing myself for the battle I was going to have to get all the fraudulent bullshit squared away. These assholes who open credit lines under your name obviously don’t pay anything on time, or pay anything for that matter, & just because it wasn’t actually YOU doing the spending.. doesn’t mean the creditors back off. They want to get paid.)
At a later date on a different post, I’ll write about the steps I took, what I wish I had known ahead of time, & I’ll even tell you how I fought a creditor in court (AND WON), so if you ever have the unfortunate experience of having YOUR identity stolen, you’ll know what to do. But today, I’m telling you all the aforementioned as a precursor to what I want to tell you about in this post.. and that is how to still buy things you may need or want, while your credit score is in the toilet, & no one will approve you for shit.
It can become incredibly defeating when you feel like you don’t have a way out of a financial rut. And if you’re like me, & you don’t have anyone that can help you out, sometimes it can be outright depressing. When you need to make a purchase & have bad credit, & maybe your income isn’t as flexible to allow you the opportunity to buy it all at once.. or maybe your credit cards have outrageous interest rates & you don’t want to add to your balance (I don’t blame you), YOU DO HAVE OPTIONS. I discovered these options when I was looking for a wedding dress but realized it was going to take awhile for me to be able to buy it (because wedding dresses are RIDICULOUSLY priced) then getting angry because I knew had some douchebag not ruined my credit I could’ve used a credit card.. I suppose it was worth getting enraged again because it spurred me into finding the following alternatives:
Klarna – this app allows you to buy pretty much anything online (& although I’ve never used it in store, you can if you want), & to pay it off in four interest free installments without any impact to your credit. There is no credit check to begin using it, and you don’t have to worry about missing your payments because they automatically schedule it & take it out of your bank account every two weeks. What I love about this app is that there is retailer you can’t use it with, and after you pay off stuff you get reward points. When you hit a certain number of points you can trade them in for gift cards to use in different stores (I’ve gotten five $5 Amazon gift cards so far). They do have a credit option with an extended pay off period, I think it’s like six months or something – but, I’ve stuck with the original concept while I’m in credit restoration mode, and it’s been awesome.
QuadPay – this app is the same concept as Klarna, but they give you a spending limit which is based on your credit, and you pay your purchase off over a 6 week time period. Despite my credit drama, they still gave me $1000 line (which was awesome when I was Christmas shopping). From my experience with the app, they have a specified list of retailers (although extensive) that you can use QuadPay with (in store & online). This means if you’re trying to use it somewhere that doesn’t have the ability to accept it, that’s the only downside. Despite that, they’re still a fantastic alternative.
Afterpay – just like QuadPay, and you get a $600 limit to start with. They’ll extend you once you have a certain amount of purchases paid off. They, like QuadPay, have a specified list of retailers but again, it is an extensive list (& includes a lot of the major ones, like Amazon.) You also have a six week time frame to pay off whatever you buy.
Sezzle – another option much like QuadPay & Afterpay. They give you a spending limit, you can utilize it at any of the approved retailers on their list, and pay it off over six weeks. I just started using this one so I’m still learning the ins & outs, but they’re definitely a solid option as well.
**If you’re stuck in a similar situation as I was and you need some way to help build up your credit score, another option is to sign up for the app MoneyLion & see if you can get approved for their Creditbuilder Plus Loan. I highly recommend doing this – once you apply & are approved, they’ll give you a small loan. I think my first one was $1000. They’ll directly deposit a certain amount into your bank account from the start, for me it was $150. Then, the rest of the loan is locked up until you pay it off completely. I pay $20 a week (plus the price of the service, which is reasonable considering) and after the term is up, they open up the remainder & deposit the money into your account. My credit score greatly improved since doing this; I’ve paid off one loan & started up another one just to keep it growing. I can’t speak to how much my score went up precisely because I’ve also paid off my car during this time period, but over the past year I saw a 75 point increase. It shows up on your credit report as a personal loan being paid off, which is a positive. Even if you just need a slight boost, I think it’s 100% worth it.
If you know of any other programs that can help other debt-ridden debutantes, comment or send me an email!❤️
