03 March 2009

Card, credit

Yesterday I finally got my Spanish residency card. It's colorful and iridescent and conveniently fits in my wallet. Hooray! Now I can legally... get started on yet another pile of paperwork that was awaiting my official identification number. Still, it's nice to be official.

Speaking of paperwork, I got a scary loan default letter yesterday, threatening all kinds of dire bad credit issues if I don't cough up the money.

But wait! I have paid off all my college loans! Why am I being bugged for money?

It is because of the folly of youth: in college, I co-signed a loan for a friend. I have not spoken with this person since college, so evidently it was not the kind of friendship that outlasts working together in the resident assistant program. But since she is not paying her loan, I am being hounded (my parents get all kinds of calls as well).

I have tried to find a way to contact this woman, but all I have at the moment is her street address. I guess I'll have to write an old-fashioned letter and ask her indignantly politely to pay her stupid $8.10.

Yes, all of this is over an unpaid eight bucks. Still, it really kind of stinks to be facing bad credit over not a lot of money, and I worry that she will continue to not pay off her loan, especially given the economy, and that this could get a whole lot worse.

3 comments:

pinolona said...

Oh gosh, I feel for you... I feel sick thinking about my own student loans, let alone someone else's!

Catherine said...

There is another option to managing to locate her and getting her to pay up. You could just pay it yourself. $8.10 to avoid a bad credit rating may well be a bargain.
Unfortunately co-signing a loan makes you equally responsible for paying it. A fact that many people, especially young people, don't fully appreciate.

Congratulations on the Spanish residency card

Anonymous said...

May I add to Catherine's advice: after paying for it, just do a 1099 on her (your old friend) :)))

There are ways and ways...

good luck in Barcelona... For a lot of people residing here the 'coolness' of Barna wears off after a couple of years, but heck! it's better than the US for sure... congrats.