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I spent 7 years basically unable to get credit because I owed $180k on a tractor in Kansas. I had never been to Kansas. Someone had transposed the last 2 digits
by noonespecial 10y ago
I spent 7 years basically unable to get credit because I owed $180k on a tractor in Kansas. I had never been to Kansas. Someone had transposed the last 2 digits of a SSN.
It was nobody's job to fix it.
- saghm 10y agoI didn't even know that tractors cost $180k! I just assumed they cost around the same as a car
- noonespecial 10y agoThe tractor (technically some sort of 'harvester') had cost around $700k. The farmer had stopped paying (probably went bankrupt) and still owed $180k. I was a 19yo, freshly back to the US from Germany (I had been there since I was 11) and suddenly found I was unable to obtain any sort of credit (like getting a phone, electricity, an apartment etc.) Everyone involved could easily see what happened. And no one could fix it.
- influx 10y agoTry a combine: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/business/2014-11-02/how-much-combine-window.html http://www.news-gazette.com/news/business/2014-11-02/how-muc...
- mikestew 10y agoDepending on how you define "tractor", they can cost as much as your house: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/business/2014-11-02/how-much-combine-window.html http://www.news-gazette.com/news/business/2014-11-02/how-muc.... (I'll save you a click: not hard to spend half a million.)
- saghm 10y agoDamn, I had no idea. Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, I literally knew no one who had a tractor.
- darkhorn 10y agoIf you owned it then you could sell it, right?
- Nomentatus 10y agoInteresting thought. Still, possession is more than nine-tenths of being able to put something up for auction. If you could find a buyer sight-unseen, you'd be liable for fraud, alas. And you'd have given someone incentive to sort the mess out in order to charge you.