Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Rig & Family

PA100068

In previous posts we’ve mentioned how awesome Al, our salesman at Whitehorse RV, has been with keeping an eye on our rig before we came to pick it up. When we arrived to make the move into the new rig, he handed us this box and said to make sure we took it with us before we left. Here is what was in it….four delectable bakery items. One was a super rich carrot cake, lemon sponge cake, chocolate mousse tart with chocolate covered strawberry on top and the last item was a strawberry sponge cake with fresh blueberries and a cherry on top. As we were moving into the evening and needed an energy boost, we’d take a few bites of these yummy things.

A huge hurdle that we hit with purchasing the rig has been the financing. The first bank that gave us preliminary “approval”…Bank of the West..backed out when they found out we are full time RV’ers. The finance lady submitted our info to two other banks and they also said no. Fulltimers are frowned upon by financial institutions. Guess they don’t like the gypsy nature of our lives. Another bank, Alliant Credit Union, had been into the RV dealership recently and pitched them that they have a speedy process, will finance for full-timers, yada yada. We started the process with them last Thursday and every day they wanted more and more documentation. Now, keep in mind that we’re on the move…driving a rig we haven’t paid for and the dealership is being really great sports about the whole thing. We are also not fully settled so I’m trying to scan documents (after trying to FIND them in the rig), fire up the generator so the scanner will work, balance the laptop on one knee…quite the acrobatic act to do all this and be out and about with family and friends. Yesterday, we’d had enough with Alliant. After our boss submitted our wages, on letterhead, they then wanted all of our bank statements showing all of our commissions having been deposited into our checking account. ENOUGH ! We’ve been dealing with them since last Thursday and still no answer from them. We told them we’d had it…they had received statements of all of our assets (retirement and non-retirement) and could see that we had enough money to support our loan. We decided to pay cash for it and be done with it.  Our investments, in the stock market, have taken a hit anyways so we’ll save the interest money and own our rig outright. I had heard, from RV dealers that I work with across the country, that financing has been an issue for qualified buyers and now we’ve seen it firsthand. Even with excellent credit, banks are being very tight fisted. So we’re in the process of moving money to pay for our home. In the meantime, Whitehorse is being very patient….bless them !

Visiting with mom and my brothers and sister. We’re going with mom and my sister/BIL to the casino tomorrow. Hey, maybe we’ll hit the jackpot and it’ll pay for our rig. Wonder if I can find a lucky rabbit’s foot to take with me. We’ll see….

2 comments:

QuiltinLibraryLady said...

Banks are being cranky about lending money to qualified borrowers all right. My son couldn't get $8,000 to put a new furnace/heat pump/central AC in the house he's completely remodeling....and the entire property will be worth twice as much as what he paid for it when he's finished. His father-in-law finally had to get the loan for him. Son & DIL both have very good jobs and won't have any trouble paying it back. Didn't matter at all to the banks.

Bobbie and Jim said...

Wow, what a run-a-round you've gone through. It is wonderful that you have the resources to pay for the rig. Remarkable that the dealer has been so generous in letting you take the rig without payment. But you are both so sweet, wonderful people, why wouldn't they? Miss you. Bobbie