Comments for Simeon Pilgrim

Comment on What’s Simeon been up to? by Simeon

Simeon — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:12:42 +0000

I think consumer debt (unsecured) banking were always cautious, the problem was how banks where ‘managing risk’ on house loans (secured debt) to maximise R.O.I. for the banks perspective. That and/or the bank I joined, had no problems during the “scary times” becuse the played it safe, but did make huge profits in 2008/2009.

Comment on What’s Simeon been up to? by Rowan

Rowan — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:13:56 +0000

Is this just the banks/companies being cautious because of the mess they got themselves into last year, or has it always been like that?

Comment on We now have cars! by Simeon

Simeon — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:35:48 +0000

Nod, I’ll be honest, I’m not expecting much from the US on the credit history front, nor the nice tasting bread, nor to have any money left if anybody gets sick.

But the people are friendly….

Comment on We now have cars! by Stu

Stu — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:32:05 +0000

don’t bank on the credit score going up by much any time soon. the numbers are glacial and require years of history.

find a “world market” or something so you can stock up on golden syrup + stuff. I miss meat pies :( I’m lucky me ma still sends stuff over :) hehe care packages rock when they let them in the country.

medical sucks, and nomatter what coverage you have you still pay most of the bill and there are places that wont even accept your coverage, the whole health care provider hospital deal thing.

Comment on We now have cars! by Simeon

Simeon — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:27:52 +0000

I love the free-right on red. And I love not having the NZ give-way rule.

Agreed on 4-way stops, well they are like a well controlled round-about, but again are silly at 12pm at night, when a round about are great!

I also like the driving on bigger roads, and not winding through back streets to get across town, but then it only took 8 minutes to drive the 8km to work, or 20minutes to bike it. Where-as I’d never bike here, as there is no room on the roads.

Comment on We now have cars! by Stu

Stu — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:23:58 +0000

“over hear” == virginia. I didnt think much about ‘the other hand’ for gear changes. When I first started, I wanted to turn into the wrong lane when going left across the road at a T intersection. They give licenses to anyone, tests are really weak. In australia I had to roll start a manual in peak hour traffic, 3 point turns, parallel parking etc.. here nothing. My wife cant parallel park / reverse park. I do like the turn right when its clear even on a red signal thing but really miss roundabouts and i hate 4-way stop signs.

Comment on What’s Simeon been up to? by Stu

Stu — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:19:34 +0000

credit scores in the US are calculated by magic. nobody knows and its all a mystery. good luck with getting your score “up”. Isn’t it funny how you need an SSN to get a phone :) or pretty much anything else here.

Comment on We now have cars! by Simeon

Simeon — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:31:25 +0000

Oh the NZ located US guys said we would get “stung” on car insurance, well both cars will cost $1,800 USD for 6 months cover.

As our credit rating improves from “unknown” to positive that price will improve, also getting Illinois driver licenses will reduce that also by a little bit.

Also on costs, it only costs ~2,000 NZD a year to have better medical insurance cover (out of pocket expenses/deductibles) than the US ~20,000 USD. That’s for 2 adults and two children.

But electronics/food/cloths are cheaper.

Comment on What’s Simeon been up to? by Simeon

Simeon — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:24:37 +0000

The electricity/gas company was no so bad, they just wanted me to fax my SSN/passport to some random US number, and to have a $380 deposit, paid over 6 months so is not so bad.

What was annoying was the 1 1/2 hours to buy a phone (after having spent 40 minute previously to find we needed a SSN number for a contract) to then have to pay $400 deposit upfront due to no credit history. We get that back after 1 year if we are good.

I the bank gave us car loans but we had to have 30% down, and we got local’s rate, which was nice, we where expecting to have to buy the cars outright, so that was “nice”.

Where-as to get a CC we need to deposit the same amount we want as the limit, into a fixed CD deposit for at least 12 months. Then to maximise the CC history rating, we should not load the CC more than 1/3 of the limit. Otherwise will be flagged as a “risk”, almost pointless.

At least the car loans will start to build credit history.

Comment on We now have cars! by Simeon

Simeon — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:16:51 +0000

No they are both autos. We decided, that we couldn’t be bothered to learn to drive stick with the other hand, just focus on not getting run over by the trucks, etc. Man they love to swerve all over the place.

“Over here”, where are you again? it seams nobody uses there indicator in the US, just drift lanes, well people use then when traffic is crammed, but when there is space (albeit small by nz standards) they just change lanes, turn corners, etc.