Hmm, well I started this yesterday and forgot about it, so post it in incomplete form, lol.

And just like that, my credit score takes a 31 point nose dive on 2 of the reporting agencies.  I opened up an account a few months ago that had zero fees to move from one card to another, so I maxed the thing out.  It's 18 months interest free, which I fully intend on paying off long before 18 months is up.  That is, if my income starts flowing in the right direction.

So, I guess if I pay a few thousand dollars off of debt, the score should bot back up.  Right? Maybe, credit scores and what affects them are a netherland to me.  You do something you think will help and it does, but then it hurts you.  In this case, it appears to the credit reporting agencies that I just used $1,500 of credit card limit and therefore, I think if I am assessing this right and all the reading I have done, I must be desperate for money. So, double whammy - I opened a new account and I used $1,500 instantaneously on it.

I didn't figure getting my credit score to go back up would be an overnight proposal, tho.  once I pay my debt down to below 30%, that will raise my score significantly.  I'm at 37% right now, so that really shouldn't take too long once I get a good flow of income in.

My previous employer sent my final vacation payout.  The company "lost" the hours and that is why i didn't get paid.  Well ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!  If I hadn't of said anything to former GM, it would never have been resolved.  Seriously.  They just switched over from one format to another for signing in and employee information, my vacation hours were left on the old format and hadn't transferred over.  Yet, the Regional manager got a bit testy with me.  I wrote him a nice letter back, telling him if he has issues with me, that's fine, but my stance is, why is this taking so long? It''s company policy, it's in writing.  I bid him a nice day and never heard back from him.

Anyway, my first full paycheck was more than 2 paychecks at the previous employer, as expected. Still, you never know, so I kinda held back any optimism until I actually saw the thing deposited into my bank account.

I have my doubts about this company, tho. As I reported yesterday, the truck is having issues - some serious issues - and after bringing it up to both my dispatcher  in texting and the head mechanic in person - and getting nowhere with it - well. that's a big red flag on my list.  You don't make money broke down on the side of the road.  Or even if it's in the company shop, you aren't making money sitting there waiting for days for them to fix it. If the transmission is having the trouble I think it is, it will definitely take a couple days to fix.

Then there is the issue of who is going to get blamed for that damage.  I can honestly say that in all the years I have driven trucks, I have never trashed a motor or a tranny, or a differential for that matter. Never burned up a clutch, either.  In the first years of driving, without engine brakes, I smoked the brakes a couple of times coming down off of very long, steep grades.  I was a rookie, some things are going to happen. But nothing ill became of those instances.  So, I will not accept and declaration that "you did this" unless I actually, really did do it, but since there is no way of proving that and I know that I haven't done anything to cause it, it's a moot point in my book. The truck has half a million miles on it, that alone is enough to simply be a wear and tear issue.

Well who knows, I'm not going to fret about the blame game, but I will have an issue if this thing breaks down out on the road. Not after I warned them about the issues and actually told them this truck needs fixed to 2 different people, now 3.  I asked the recruiter who I am supposed to report this stuff to since the head mechanic didn't do or even say anything.

Meanwhile, tomorrow morning at 9 am I have a road test with the first company I had wanted to go with.  At this point, it seems very prudent that I go ahead with that and play this thing out. Because, I have quit companies in the past that wouldn't maintain or even repair their equipment and get pissy about it breaking down for no fault of my own.  One such time was a bad fuel pump.  I told them it has a bad fuel pump.  They said how would you know, we are sending someone to get it started. I said fine, but it isn't going to fix the problem.  It's a long story, I won't go into it here, but the end result was the service guy got it running (not a mechanic) by spraying starting fluid into the intake.  I drove the truck half a mile and it stopped, on the highway, at a light.  All hell broke loose after that and I ended up quitting the company.  I didn't even tell them - til the end.  I drove the load back to Phoenix (where it was going anyway) after they fixed the truck, delivered the load, took the truck back to their yard.  Got all my stuff out of it, handed it back to them and quit.

Same thing would happen here.  Take the truck back, get my stuff out of it, take a bus back home, c'ya.  That's it.  I haven't heard back from the recruiter, maybe I won't.  Dunno, but if I don't, I am definitely going to take it up with the owner of the company who contacted me about this job in the first place.  Whatever he determines, that is what I will base my decisions off of.  I'm sure these are all nice, good people, but, they have to deal with the negative elements of the trucking industry and includes broken trucks.