My goal is to be as environmental as possible.  In a place like Houston, that may seem like a lonely and ill-fated pursuit.  Just hear me out.

For the purpose of reducing me energy use, I was thinking about getting a new refrigerator for the last three years.  I had read that old refrigerators use more electricity, and mine was from the 1970s, the harvest gold color.  My wife hated it, but we have bad credit and not a lot of spare cash.  Getting a loan to buy one just wasn’t in the cards.  

But I own my truck, having finished the payments in 2007.  And I heard you could get money from a title loan, no credit check necessary.  Great. And then I went on Craigslist and found all kinds of things at fire sale prices (well, actually from unsold condos out in Oak Lawn).  Would you believe they had Energy Star rated, stainless steel refrigerators that originally were $3000, now available for $1000?  Well, they did.

The refrigerators were being sold the next day, so I needed fast cash.  I went to Houston Car Title Loans, where they told me I could get up to $4000.  All I needed was the $1000 so I filled out the online application and in about 15 minutes.  The money was in my checking account the next morning, and I was able to get the refrigerator/freezer the next day.  It’s beautiful, and my electricity costs went down by 25% the first month.

I never borrow money for frivolous things like TVs or vacations.  But this is to save energy, and it was an automobile title loan that made it happen.

- Caleb D.

My husband and I have always been responsible.  We raised three children, all out of college now.  We save for retirement, and we’re good drivers. That’s why what I did was as much a surprise to me and my friends and family. 

What was the shocking thing?  I borrowed money by using my car title as collateral. And I have no regrets whatsoever.

It began when we were in a car accident.  I escaped with just a few cuts and bruises, but my husband was severely injured.  We first went to Park Plaza Hospital for the emergency room, then later at Texas Orthopedic Hospital for follow-up treatment. There were five operations, several months of physical therapy, plus to manage pain and infection, a whole medicine cabinet full of pharmaceuticals.  This is a man who ran five marathons in 2005 and 2006.  

He has health insurance coverage at his job.  It’s good insurance, or so we thought. Ned has been with his company for more than 20 years. Our premiums have gone up a lot in the past five years, and we now pay more than 50 percent of those premiums. Our monthly family coverage premium costs rose by $400 in the last four years.   

But I guess that’s just not enough.  We had to argue with the insurance company for costs related to the emergency room – like we had a choice at that point.  We had to discontinue physical therapy for six weeks because it was unclear if it was covered, and each session billed at more than $500.  Our out-of-pocket costs were $5000. With Ned on disability, we couldn’t pay all our bills, so we ended up with bad credit.  After years of faithful, diligent bill paying on cars, house, kids’ tuition – we couldn’t get a bank loan, or an extension from credit card companies or our mortgage bank. To dip into our 401K money would incur huge penalties, as well as losses due to the down stock market.

But we own my car outright, and decided to try a car title loan. It became a way to buy time and work out a plan – and get fast cash for the physical therapy when timing was everything.  Ned is truly walking better because of that car title loan.  I think someday he might run another marathon, perhaps with his grandchildren.

Houston Car Title Loans was our lifeline.   You don’t have to go to some storefront operation – it’s all online, where you spend about 20 minutes on the online application. The money is in your checking account the next day. For anyone else in this situation, get car title loans with no credit checks.  It’s the thing you do to manage healthcare in this day and age.

- Coretta D.

When Hurricane Ike hit Galveston, it took a few days to see how extensive the damage was.  As it turns out, the loss of property and human life was enormous.  But it also meant a business opportunity for many of us looking for work in this bad economy.

I own a pickup truck, a Chevy, and usually I’m helping friends and family move things with it.  I can’t tell you how man trees I helped my brother-in-law plant, saving the charges he’d otherwise get from the nursery.  The funny thing was, Ike hit after a summer of no work for me (got laid off in April) and mounting bills at home that threw us into the “bad credit” category.

But I heard about work I could get in areas going through storm rescue and recovery.  They need pickup trucks like mine to haul working appliances and salvageable furniture to storage, work that doesn’t make sense for bigger trucks.  That’s work I could do, and a cousin of mine is in the business doing that.

The good part is the work pays well. But there’s a lag time until you get paid.  They make you wait on insurance claims, and you’re a subcontractor to a subcontractor, so you are at the bottom of the food chain.  So sometimes you work eight or ten weeks before you see the money.  It pays well, worth the time and travel.   But with bad credit and lots of bills to pay, I worried how we’d get by.

Houston Car Title Loans was my personal finance FEMA, so to speak.  They have an online application form that takes no more than 15 minutes to complete.  With an auto title loan company, there is no credit check.  It’s fast — enough to cover my expenses at home while I work seven days a week helping people get their lives back together.