We have a small loan through Wells Fargo (was $1100... Now down to $840) which we have been paying on time, actually early, and paying about $10 extra each month. I was contacted by a representative (Pete) via phone from their St. Cloud, MN office to see if I wanted another loan since we had been paying on time and such. I told him we were doing fine, so "no". He then asked if we would consider a consolidation loan, as it might help us reduce our high interest credit card payments. (We do have several credit cards... As I went to graduate school and graduated with my master's last year, so accumulated some debt along the way.) We thought it might be nice to have it all lumped into one payment (consolidated) with lower interest, so we decided to hear him out, as we will soon be moving into our new house, so would love fewer payments. He asked us to come into his office and bring our car title, pay stubs, and insurance slip for the car, as it might be a source of collateral. We figured we would do it to see what they could offer us. (Note... We have 3 years left to pay on our car on a 6 year loan at 9%; we have $2900.in equity in the car). Since we have not had a late payment on anything in over 3 years, we hoped for a good offer. He asked us what we wanted when we got there... We told him to consolidate into a lower interest loan - to avoid several small payments, and instead have one. After almost 2 hours of sitting in his office (he was 'downstairs' talking to an underwriter), he finally brought in an offer. They would refinance our car with a 66 month loan at 18%. We could then take the equity ($2900) and use it to pay off a few small credit cards. They also would offer us a $5000. Credit line to pay off some others. I asked the percentage rate... 20.998% was the offer!!! We nearly fell off of our chairs. This is higher than any of our credit cards, and the car loan was a joke at 18%. We just got up and walked out the door. We couldn't believe that they would think we would fall for this!!! Obviously, they were not thinking of our needs... Only how they could make huge amounts of money off of interest on us! Buyer Beware!!! We will pay off our credit cards on our own... We are doing it fine now. We certainly DON'T need to make Wells Fargo rich in the process.
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