Too Much Money and No Credit

15 years ago

This has been frustrating. We decided to start accepting credit cards from guests in payment for our Maui vacation condo. The condo is owned by a trust, of which DH and I are trustees.

The CC processing company wanted to see MY credit report before approving the contract -- although all money concerning the property flows in and out of the trust account.

All three credit reports on my DH and me have been frozen for many years. I unfroze one this company wanted to access.

Oh-oh, the company doesn't like my credit report; they want our bank to fax them information. The reason given: They are afraid I won't be able to pay the $35 fee should a guest at the condo contest charges.

Our bank has now faxed the company our cash balance -- six figures. Do you suppose that will suffice?

We have no mortgages. We pay our CC's in full every month and have a revolving 'draw' on each card that is in five figures. We own our car outright. We have never been delinquent on utility bills, RE taxes, condo association fees, payments to the rental agency we employ, our cleaner, the IRS, the State...etc.

What's *wrong* with us? I'm thinking of the movie "The Way We Live Now".

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Comments (8)

sushipup1
15 years ago
Are there other CC processing companies? Isn't that a competitive business?
Billl
15 years ago
Sounds like you are getting a worked up over nothing. You've got a pretty minimal recent credit history. You are trying to get into the credit card business - so they obviously check your credit. The company didn't turn you down, they just asked for more information. They have no way of knowing if you don't have a mortgage because you are wealthy or because you live in your parent's basement. They obviously have some sort of process in place for dealing with people like you or they wouldn't have asked for the banking info.
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User
15 years ago
This is one of the problems that I see in having everything in a trust account. If you would ever need to show your personal credit history, you have not current history.

I would be more upset if they only asked for your credit history and not both of your histories. Which is what your post sounds like. A little sexism in the work? Perhaps.
LuAnn_in_PA
15 years ago
"They have no way of knowing if you don't have a mortgage because you are wealthy or because you live in your parent's basement. "

Good point!
barbcollins
15 years ago
You can use Paypal to accept credit cards. No credit check at all.

We use Intuit for my husband's plumbing business. It was originally Echonet when we enrolled. Trust me... his credit was not perfert. We have a 2.35% discount rate. $20/month statement fee ONLY if we have any transactions.
dreamgarden
15 years ago
"We decided to start accepting credit cards from guests in payment for our Maui vacation condo."

Why? Wasn't the other system working?

"Oh-oh, the company doesn't like my credit report; they want our bank to fax them information. The reason given: They are afraid I won't be able to pay the $35 fee should a guest at the condo contest charges."

I think the company wants to know how much money you have. Why give them more than they really need?

I would have had the bank fax over just enough information (not tell them your entire net worth) to satisfy their condition that you are a good credit risk and will not 'stiff them' for that (huge) $35 fee! If that didn't work I'd set up a bank account (at one other than my primary bank), put in enough $ to cover this fee a few times over and give that acct# to the company instead.

If that wasn't enough, I'd do what the other posters suggested and either go with paypal or back to the old way of doing things. Just my opinion.
davidro1
15 years ago
I'll bet it's not the $35 fee, but the risk of recovering a charge reversal, which could be thousands of dollars the first month if they let you into their system.

Some slick operators have this all figured out long before anyone points it out. Your not seeing this leads me to believe you need a lot more coaching.

Imagine (fiction) you one day inherited a credit card service, and you now take the other role in the equation. Adopting the practices you are suggesting they should use in your regard, where would you be financially after X time period? You would lose money certainly. You are guaranteed to lose money, in some businesses, if you adopt certain practices.

You can buy shares in credit card companies that do as you suggest they do. You can buy the whole company and force it to operate as you wish. Then you may make it go bankrupt as fast as you wish.

Hth.
User
15 years ago
ChiSue, you said "All three credit reports on my DH and me have been frozen for many years. I unfroze one this company wanted to access."

That is where you made your mistake. You probably froze it to stop negative credit reports but doing so you also stopped positive reports.

You might have 6 figures in the bank but you also say "We pay our CC's in full every month and have a revolving 'draw' on each card that is in five figures"

Every lender looks at your Debt to Credit ratio and your income. What you have in the bank doesn't matter as much as income and payment history.

Think about it, you SAY you have 6 figures in the bank but you "draw" 5 figures from cards every month and have no credit history.
I would want to see your credit history before lending you $35.00 to be sure what you say you have is true and isn't going to just vanish.

Too Much Money and No Credit

Comments (8)

sushipup1

Billl

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