u/yd-brother

I’ve been there before. Down 1,2,10 thousands dollars and feeling absolutely sick about it. Disgusted in myself not only because I lost money, but because I lost my sense of security, hope, and almost my relationship.

Some say it’s an addiction, others call it stupid and immature, but to you it’s not that. It’s the place you go when you’re bored, when you’re stressed, when you just need that $200 dollars to feel like you did something that day, a win. But it was never supposed to be that.

You probably saw a clip online, an ad pop up when scrolling social media, or maybe even a friend told you about it. You tried, lost $20 bucks, maybe even thought it wasn’t for me. For whatever reason though, you logged back in the next day. You claimed your free daily dollar which turned into $10 dollars, then $40 dollars, then $100.

You sit in shock with how easy this was, how accessible and quick. You almost just made a whole days worth of pay in a matter of minutes. You think about cashing out, but the thought of just one more win crosses your mind. So you do what the sites there for, go gamble. You lose $10 of that $100. “That’s okay”, you say you’re you going to get it back up to $100 and cash out. So you go another around $90 turns to $60, $60 to $20 and in the same amount of time it took you to hit $100, you’re sitting with .64 cents in your balance.

Some may think “oh well it was free money anyway”, but others think about it differently. That was $100, a few tanks of gas, a night out with your woman, maybe even that bill you knew was going to run you tight since you don’t make that much at work. To you it was real, and the truth of the matter is, it was. You however, don’t like to lose. Your optimism takes over and says if I can win $100 off a dollar, then I can win again. So you deposit $100, and in that moment that single decision, you just changed your life forever.

I’m no different from anyone else, I’ve won thousands and lost thousands on online casinos. I was making 40k a year and was more than 12k deep in credit card debt all due to gambling. I’ve risked my relationship, I’ve lied, I’ve played this act of eveything is fine when I can’t stop thinking of the 2500 dollars I just blew could’ve went to a million different things. But in all of that i finally reached my breaking point. I realized there’s more in this life than hoping to hit big, there’s more than being that guy who you think people will care about because he’s more successful, there’s more than one more spin.

I am now almost debt free from this addiction and I refuse to open this back up to myself. I’d love to help support anyone who needs it and give them the advice I used to get to where I am now. If I can do it, so can you. I promise you that.

I have 4 cards i paid off this month and I am curious when they will report. I’ve seen many different timeframes from 2-5 days up to 2 weeks. I’m needing to apply for an auto loan this weekend and I’m stressing a bit that they won’t report in time.

Not sure if this information will be helpful to estimate if these will report by Saturday, but any insight into your experiences will be helpful.

This is also my first off-cycle report with discover, so if anyone has completed one could you tell me how that went/ how long it took for you to notice changes to your report?

•Capital One:
-Payment Due date: 9th
-Statement day 15th (this month it came out yesterday 16th)
-Billing period end date: CO stated the 14th.
-Last report: 33 days ago

Care credit:
-Payment Due date: 11th
-Statement day 19th
-Billing period end date: unsure
-Last report: 29 days ago

Bestbuy (Citi):
-Payment Due date: 13th
-Statement day: 19th
period end date: Unsure
-Last report: 29 days ago

Discover: Off-cycle reporting this once payment posts tomorrow.

I’m a first year 1099 contractor specifically contracted through 1 company, working full time hours but I do not have w-2’s. My fico credit score is approximately 730 give or take and I really need to buy a car this upcoming week and I’m concerned they won’t approve me due to low score and “no proof of income”.

What score do most lenders no longer require proof of income?

My credit is pretty bad right now sitting around a 630. A majority of this is related to a total utilization of 87%. I’m looking to knock this down to about 8-9% next week.

The main culprit is my discover card. I’m going to be paying almost all of it off, but I really need my credit score to update within 3 days of requesting an off-cycle report through them. Whats the chance this change does take place and I am able to apply for an auto loan with my updated score/utilization?

I’m 25 years old and currently working as a 1099 contractor for one sole company. I’ve found the car I want however I’m holding off on applying for financing until I pay most of my credit cards off which will be around the 20th this month.

My biggest concern right now is the the card ends up selling before my credit is updated. I currently sit at about a 630 score, with 88% utilization/14k out of 17k limit (horrendous I know) but after the 20th it’ll be about 11% utilization total. The card with the biggest balance also will be reported early so my scores can update credit.

What are my realistic odds of getting a 30k loan before/after the update in credit?

I had subscribed to the EA pro pass to play a different game with some buddies. Luckily it also came with a nice 2200 FC creds as well. I’m pretty new to fifa but getting the hang of it nicely. However, still pretty ignorant to a lot of things including best packs to open.

With those credits which pack would you choose?

I am currently in the market for a new car. Like most people who’ve never owned or driven a Volvo it never even crossed my mind to look into them. Luckily, someone had recommended that I check them out and so far I’m glad i did.

I’ve recently found a 2023 Volvo s60 T8 Black Edition Plus. I haven’t driven the car yet, or even seen it in person but so far I’m already in love. However, I have a couple questions/concerns that’d I’d like to address before biting the bullet and owning one of these vehicles.

1. The car I’m looking at has 40k miles with a price tag of 30k. I felt that seemed pretty fair already. However, with Volvo being one of the highest depreciating vehicles, is this still a good buy? What price would you negotiate for?

2. With this vehicle being at almost 50k miles, do concerns begin to arise with repairs or failing parts? Is the battery warrantied until 100k miles? Is there anything other than common maintenance I can do to extended a healthy vehicle? Do hybrid Volvos last well past the 100-200k mark? Are Volvos a “drive into the ground” type of vehicle?

3. This is more of an opinionated question but I’d love to hear experienced owners:
   With the Vehicles listed package, miles, and price tag is this a buy? Is there anything you would change about your Volvo or wish they did differently? Is this truly THE car that everyone overlooks/sleeps on?

I appreciate ALL insights and experiences. I hope to hear good things about this car, but I’m ready for the raw truth.

I’m looking for my next vehicle and I’m unsure of where to look. I originally was looking at the Mercedes amg cla 45, however my wife will not allow it due to worries of repair costs. Unfortunately most other cars I’ve looked at (online) don’t really tickle my fancy like that one did. My I’d like to stick under 40k, however I’m okay with going over for the right vehicle.

There are a few cars I’m not really big into that fit the criteria:
Kia Stinger
Anything Audi
Tesla

Then there are a couple I do like but don’t fit the budget:
Lexus IS500
Most BMW’s
Cadillac CTS-V
Charger Scat (wide body only)

So I’m turning to you guys to maybe point me in the direction I haven’t seen or thought about. I’m looking for more “off the line” speed than top speed even though I’ll probably never race lol, more just a preference I have.

Thanks!

A few weeks ago my wife and I (mid 20’s) found out she was pregnant. We weren’t necessarily “trying” right now, but we also weren’t preventing. I’m personally not quite ready for children and want to wait at least another year, however she wanted to conceive sometime in September.

Anyway, she happened to test positive and she was beyond excited. I was pretty shocked, and stressed (obviously lol) but he started coming around to the idea of being a dad.

Unfortunately, she is about 5-7 weeks and during her most recent ultrasound her sac was empty. This is pointing towards a blighted ovum, especially with her most recent labs where her HCG and Progesterone as starting to point to a likely failed pregnancy.

She is obviously really torn up about this, she’s crying all the time, you can see the depression, and she’s just been needing time away from others and just with me. I’ve of course been trying to provide as much comfort and support to her as I can since I know that’s what she needs from me right now.

I just kinda feel like somethings wrong with me. Im not nearly as upset or really upset other than how I see this makes her feel. Part of the reason I think I feel like this is because nothing ever grew? She had the sac and was obviously have some form of pregnancy progression, but since no fetus ever started producing I don’t feel like there’s really anything to get attached to other than the idea. She also still has another appointment and the doctor has not given any confirmation of a failed pregnancy so I guess I almost still have some hope too? I just feel like I’m a horrible person almost because im not torn up about this like she is. I just also handle emotions differently than her too, but idk. AITA?

EDIT: I appreciate the kind comments. However I want to clarify that “not ready” isn’t a sense of not ready to be a father figure. It’s more or less just not feeling that I’m “prepared” enough which will probably never be the case. I wasn’t against or upset that she got pregnant when I found out, I think being a parent is a huge blessing and a responsibility, and sometimes it does worry me that maybe I’m not going to be able to provide in the ways I want to.

(TL/DR: Friend thinks I’m purposely avoiding hanging out with him in person since I’m not available/have as much free time as him, even though none of that is the case. He then brings up things that aren’t related to the conversation which is making me feel attacked)

My friend and I met in college. He was the best man at my wedding, and we talk/play video games weekly. However this is not the first time I’ve gotten a message like this, I’ve tried to explain to him that we’re not in college anymore, I have different responsibilities as does he, yet he continues to bring up stuff that is irrelevant to any part of this conversation. There’s a couple things that just aren’t true, such as only inviting him over because I invited other people (they were all invited at the same time) and saying things were going to change like getting on medication, new job, etc which quite frankly were just things for my own mental health. I also do not have a care right now as it was totaled a few weeks back and am having to share a car with my wife, which is why he brought up (now the car).

Him:
I know I do this often but like am I tripping?
I wanna see ya irl eventually

Me:
I know I’m saying I’ve just been busy which is part of the reason I haven’t been on the games even
(Talked about FIFA and why he should download)

Him:
Man I’ve played fifa. I may get it at some point but currently not feeling a soccer game. And I really hate to be so negative but dude I just don’t really buy the busy thing. I know you have things to do and I promise I understand you truly are busy a decent amount of the time. But dude I ask you to hang out a bunch. I mean I’ve asked you to come to shows, I’ve asked you to play basketball/baseball, I’ve even just offered to chill like we used to and play games. I’m not mad at you or anything I’m just growing tired of trying to pretend we’re still best pals when you don’t really seem interested in much.
And dude I completely understand if there’s shit going on or you’re overwhelmed or literally any reason! It’s just not my fav that you either won’t tell me, or you just aren’t interested.
& im not tryna attack you all the time but surely you recognize how often I’ve expressed this. I really don’t want you to think I’m being rude or inconsiderate, it just makes me think “this is how I’d treat someone that bothered me and I didn’t want to hang out with”

Me:
I need you to hear this clearly, this isn’t me choosing other people over you or that I’m “not interested” especially when I haven’t been hanging out with anyone right now, not just you. It’s not personal and it’s not that I don’t want you around.
I’m married, I don’t have a car right now, and basically every weekend for the past 6 weeks has already been booked with either a wedding, having to do family stuff, or just needing time with Anna. That’s not an excuse I’m making up, that’s just where my life is at right now with all this going on. We’re not going to have the same amount of free time, and that’s not a reflection of how much I value you.
And saying “I’m not trying to attack you” followed by “this is how I’d treat someone I didn’t want around” doesn’t really read as “constructive criticism”. I get you’re frustrated, but that to me sounds as if we live the exact same timeline, and I’m choosing to do everything in my power to not hangout with you which I don’t think is a fair way to look at it from my perspective.
I get that repeated ‘I’m busy’ gets old to hear. I’m not gonna pretend I’ll always have the time or energy for it, because I won’t. But when I do, I’ll let you know even if it’s something small as catching some lunch or something similar.
I’m sorry if I haven’t been the greatest friend or given you the time to hangout, but when I say I’ve been busy I mean it.

Him:
I mean I hear that.
But I don’t at all look at it the same, I’ve told you lots of times that I understand you’re busy and you have much less time than I do. But I just truthfully don’t believe it tbh. I mean i believe you’re busy, but it’s always something we’re waiting on tbh. First it was let me get on medication, then it was let me get this new job, then it was let me get this house, now it’s your car. I understand that life things happen, but I don’t believe that youve been insanely busy for the past year. Also, “constructive criticism” was never my motive. I said I didn’t want to attack you all the time as in “I’m not saying you’re wrong for this, but this is what it looks like” followed by what it looks like. Sorry man I’m just not not really buying that there’s nothing behind it
“For the past 6 weeks I’ve been booked” buddy I’ve been trying to hang out with you almost constantly for the better part of a year and we’ve hung out one time and it was because Mutual Friend 1 and mutual Friend 2 were coming over and you said I could come as well. Surely this isn’t new news.

I recently got in a wreck and totaled my vehicle which has left my wife and I sharing a vehicle.

For the past year I’ve been thinking about upgrading to a Mercedes, but it just never made sense since my car was almost paid off and was a perfectly good car, plus I really liked it. However, my wife has this mindset that a Mercedes with 30k miles is going to end up having issues that’ll cost a fortune to fix. So far i haven’t found any cars that I’d actually want to drive/ spend 30-40k on. So I’m not sure if I should just say screw it and tell her I’m getting a vehicle I want (especially spending that much money on one) or if I should find some form of compromise and get something else. The issue is, this is how she is with any car so I’m not sure how this will turn out either way.

I’m not going to make this very long, but I’m very aggravated with this and I feel more can be done than just a dispute.

As soon as I saw the negative report and the awesome 30-70 point drop (depends on what site) I called the creditor asking questions since I’ve never been delinquent on any credit account, and I’ve made all payments.

The operator on the said there was some sort of mishap in their system which caused my loan to not update payment dates so it thought my payment had just been late and reported it as such. They told me to submit a dispute (which I have) and they said they’d review it same day.

After getting in touch with trans union it’s still in the process of being disputed. Do I have any options here? I don’t feel I should be the one punished for making payments ON-TIME due to their mishap. Let me know if I’m over-reacting, but I’m looking to buy a car in the next 2-3 weeks and if this still isn’t resolved it will be the main cause.

Also, will my score recover all points due to that ding? I’ve never had to do this before so I’m just kinda stressed about it.

(TL;DR: Attempting to estimate my future score within the next month going from 88% utilization, down to 8% as well as paying off loan balances.)

I’m needing to finance a vehicle within the next 1-2 months since I totaled mine, and my wife and I are sharing hers. I’m curious with my current credit set up what the likelihood of hitting at least 700 is within the give timeframe. I decided to make some unwise decisions in my early 20’s and now being in my mid 20’s Im certainly looking to fix this and never look back. I know dumb decisions were made, so no need to remind me in the comments lol.

Please review my end of month( reporting) numbers and see if you can (unofficially) advise what my score could range from.

Current credit situation:
Latest Score: 638
Around 82.k total debt
88% utilization (15k out of 17k)
Payment history: 100% (0 derogatory)
Total accounts: 19
Current estimate age: 3yr 3mo

4 CC - 15k total
———
CC1• 12.6k limit. current balance: 12.8k (interest charges)
CC2• 300 limit. CB: 300
CC3•(care credit): Limit 1640. CB: $120
CC4(store only card but still reports): limit 2500. CB: 1700

End of July total : 8% total utilization $1450 remaining.
CC1: $0
CC2:$0
CC3:$0
CC4:$1450

——————
Loans- 67k
car remaining: 4400
PL1: 5400
PL2:1500
PL3: 147
Camper: 22.5k (attempting to sell)
Student loans:~30k

End of July total: too damn much.
Car:$0
PL1:5200
PL2:1430
PL3: 107
Camper: 22.2k
Student loans: same

(I will provide values for all at bottom of this post, in case of TLDR)

My car was totaled last week and today I received my settlement offer. The offer was surprisingly not as bad as I thought it would be, but it certainly still has some wiggle room.

The biggest issue with the CCC report is the “condition adjustment” they put on each comp coming in at 1871 per comp. The only thing noted wrong on my car is a stain on the seat that was there when I bought the car, this brought my seat condition down to fair, but everything else was marked as good.

My car is 11 years old (2015), with a 140k miles. The comps they provided are listed at #1:116,000, #2: 133,000, and #3: 153,000 miles. Unfortunately, with any car with that many miles there are going to be very few that are in pristine condition. So my biggest issue is them taking off almost $2k in value when I can almost guarantee all of these vehicles are in the same condition as mine. The vehicles they provided I could not find on the dealership websites they provided so I cannot confirm visual condition.

My adjuster (through State Farm)did say I can submit my own comps she can provide to CCC. However after doing research, there is only 1 vehicle I could find within the 150mile radius. This vehicle had damage reported, 122k miles, and funny enough had stains in the backseat as well. The dealership has it listed at $15,995. This makes me feel I should be getting a little more value out of my car than I’m being given.

When searching online for my cars value, I found a site that put my vehicle at 140k miles at an Avg price paid of 16,275 but of course I took that with a grain of salt.

VALUES:

My Vehicle - 140,057 miles
Base Vehicle Value: $12,112.00
Condition Adjustment (Seats - Fair): -$91.00
Adjusted Vehicle Value: $12,021.00
Vehicular Tax (4.2608%): +$512.19
Total Settlement: $12,533.19

COMP 1 - 133,355 miles
| Last Updated: 03/30/2026
List Price: $15,500.00
Options Adjustment: +$779.00
Mileage Adjustment: -$667.00
Condition Adjustment: -$1,871.00
Adjusted Value: $13,741.00

COMP 2 — 116,337 miles
| Last Updated: 06/09/2026
List Price: $14,900.00
Package Adjustment: +$63.00
Options Adjustment: -$225.00
Mileage Adjustment: -$1,940.00
Condition Adjustment: -$1,871.00
Adjusted Value: $10,927.00

COMP 3- 153,106
| Last Updated: 06/16/2026
List Price: $12,300.00
Package Adjustment: +$63.00
Options Adjustment: +$225.00
Mileage Adjustment: +$1,090.00
Condition Adjustment: -$1,871.00
Adjusted Value: $11,807.00
——————-
($13,741 + $11,807 + $10,927) ÷ 3 = $12,158.33
Which is actually slightly higher than the $12,021 they landed on.

I feel though with that other comp, I should be closer to 13.5k-14k without the condition fee.

Let me know if it’s worth fighting for an extra few grand, or if I should just accept their offer. I still have an auto loan that will need to be paid off, plus my deductible so that will only leave me with about 7k liquid cash.

Thanks.

Recently I was in a car accident and my car was wrote off as totaled. So like any other human I’ve been looking into getting a new car. While looking at some cars online, something caught my attention about being self employed and how it makes things difficult especially as a newer 1099 contractor.

So I applied for a 30k loan (through a bank I have another active loan for my camper) just to see what my rates/price range would be around since I’m still waiting on my insurance. I then received a call that they weren’t able to approve me since there’s currently no way to validate my income. I also asked about a co-signer which she said same result would happen since they would want to validate income. Obviously all banks are different and this is just one loan I applied for, but what are my odds of actually securing a loan?

Little information about me is I’m a 1099 contractor for a company, but I’m borderline “misclassified”. I work in the office everyday, I’m guaranteed 40hrs minimum a week, and we have a signed contract/SOW. Unfortunately I just started this position in January so I have no tax returns yet to qualify my income.

Is there any banks you know accept contractors, or am I pretty much just cooked for the time being on getting a financed car?

My paycheck got pushed to monday unfortunately due to the holiday today. I’m getting a little low on cash right now but have $350 in liquid funds in my fidelity account.

It will take numerous business days to reach my bank, but I can instant transfer to other fidelity users. If someone would send me the money, I’d be more than happy and transfer the funds to your fidelity account right now.

I’m requesting 60-70 advance which will be repaid tomorrow. I will pays $20 on top of the repayment. My account is currently -$52 after a pending charge dropped off, then charged my account this morning.

I would be beyond grateful for your help.

(Note: this is not some promo for any software mentioned, I just hope this helps someone as much as it helps me. )

If you’re like me you gamble a lot, too much even, which eventually leads to financial burdens, stress, and overall decline in daily life.

You’ve probably wanted to quit gambling before, you’ve tried all the apps, you’ve looked up ways online, and ultimately it leads to the same thing. You disable the setting, you delete the app, and you re-run the cycle yet again.

Well this could actually be what you’ve been looking for, and so far it’s not only been FREE(has been free thus far), it’s been effective, and has allowed me to finally stop gambling. Not always by choice, but because there is literally no work around. (There is ways to disable but if you put the correct blocks in place it’s impossible)

So what is it? What do I need? And how do I do it?

1. First things first you’ll have to set up your device through TechLockdown which is an MDM (mobile device management).

They have plenty of tutorials on how to get started but I don’t mind answering any questions.

2. You’ll also need a Cloudflare account. They have free accounts which is all you’ll need, and even better yet TechLockdown integrates directly through them for a better locking experience.

3. That’s it.

Once you have those it’s all about setting up blocks and ensuring you cannot change these settings. I won’t go too in depth in my personal setup, but I will give you a look into how it works and what I’ve done to ensure I can’t remove what I’ve set.

What this does it put a configuration on my iPhone that cannot be removed without a passcode (a random 7 digit one I don’t know but have wrote down elsewhere) this configuration blocks my from adding any VPN’s to bypass my DNS blocks which are set up through Cloudflare.

I cannot access my techlockdown account without a password that was randomly generated (stored elsewhere) and I ended up blocking Cloudflare on my iPhone so I can’t edit/delete any settings that block sites via dns searches.

So what does this mean? ANY sweeps casino I search either through safari, or the google app comes up with a connection error. Apps on my phone that have gambling? Nope it does the same thing, can’t open casino apps and I can’t access any gambling. Total gambling lockout and no easy way to unlock them (unless I pull those passwords off my laptop. But you can always set up an accountability partner through techlockdown/give those passwords to someone else.

I hope this helps someone as much as it’s helped me and please feel free to reach out with ANY questions. We’re all battling this fight together, why not use tools that put us in a winning position?