The above picture is from what I consider to be one of the funniest scenes ever in a Bill Murray movie. It's from the film "Groundhog Day", of course. If you haven't seen that one yet, it's very much worth a look.
In the movie, Murray plays a reporter who is in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to help report on the Groundhog Day proceedings. Somehow he keeps repeating the same day, over and over and over. Given his comedic talents and some great writing, it makes for a hilarious story.
It seems like lately I have been in something of a Groundhog Day movie scenario. Mrs. Snave and I tried to refinance our house, and it was going to be a sweet deal. We were going to get enough extra money to pay off a large credit card debt, thus we would pay out about $1100+ less each month in that department. We would have gotten an interest rate of 4.75% instead of our current 5.5%, and we would have owned our house in 15 years instead of the 17 we have left on our current mortgage.
What keeps popping up on my credit reports is my late father's Shell card. He and I have the same name with middle initial "W" (!). Even though the W. stands for different things, the confusion is created by our first and last names and by me having had the same address as Dad from the time I was born until the time I moved out of the house.
Anyway, of the three main credit report agencies (Experian, Equifax and Transunion), one says I was born in 1927 (Dad's birth year) and all three say his old Shell account is mine. All the reports list stuff like "charged off as bad debt", "key derogatory", whatever. If we can't get the refinance done, it will very likely kill us financially.
Along with not being able to do the refinance, I also can't get Parent Plus loans for my daughters' college educations. Luckily, we are able to use Mrs. Snave's information for the college loans... but because both of us have to co-sign for the home refinance, we're sunk.
Since we got the denail notice in the mail from Bank of America on Saturday, I have spent eight or ten hours writing letters, investigating, going to Mom's house to look through old bank statements, etc. I don't think this problem can be fixed any sooner than 30-45 days from now. Crap!
So I suppose there is some resemblance to the Bill Murray movie plot in regard to my financial situation. I wouldn't trade having the same name as Dad or having lived with him for 19 or 20 years for anything, but right now it's the gift that just keeps on giving!
Wish us luck. I'm exploring all the avenues available to us, and I think all we can do now is to be patient. As in the movie, good will prevail in the end because this main character isn't going to allow it to happen any other way! 8-)
(picture found at http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tnt-audio.com/).
