Beside Myself

I am utterly at a loss right now— I am frazzled and stressed and I am freaking out. My car’s engine light went on a few days ago. I missed work on Thursday because it had also started making strange noises and it was not handling well, and I’m sorry, but I was not comfortable with driving it on a major highway for 45 minutes to get to work (which is my basic commute; yes, I know other routes to work, but they aren’t much better). I brought it in today and turns out it needs a new catalytic converter, new transmission fluid, new brake fluid, new gaskets, and an alignment. The dealership doesn’t have any rentals right now, and my insurance will not cover a rental because there is no claim involved. I don’t have the money for a rental from enterprise or hertz or any of those places, but my mom offered to give me her credit card info so I could afford a rental for a few days, for which I would pay her back. They told me at enterprise that using my mom’s card would be fine; turns out they don’t allow that. I am furious, but I am also scared and stressed. I NEED THIS JOB. I don’t want to be unemployed again. I don’t want to have to leave Colorado. I feel like the universe is conspiring against me in this. **** me.

If they don’t want you to use moms card, can she transfer you some money? Do you not have your own credit card? If you do and it has no credit, deposit moms money to pay off some balance and it will allow you to use your own card.

So this whole ordeal has been one big gruesome horror story… last night my mom struggled with opening up an online checking account. She called me in tears and my dad was being an absolute asshole. They wired me the money this morning. I called Budget rental, made a reservation for a car, and then several minutes later, they called me and told me they had no available rentals. I demanded to know why they had let me go through with the reservation in that case. Their response was, “call customer service.” “**** You” was mine. I made a reservation with enterprise next, only for them to tell me there is a $300 mandatory deposit. I was in tears at that point. I told them to keep the reservation and hopefully the money that was sent today by my parents will be available. I called my bank to double-check and they said the bank might or might not deny the charge. Divine— I do have a credit card but it is maxed out after paying for an ambulance visit to the ER back in March. If the money is today, I will need it for the car and the deposit. I am going to have a mother****ing aneurism. All i need is a car for a few days. That is all I need. My supervisor at work is being very sweet about it though— I have kept her fully informed on what is happening.

Try signing up for Zipcar?

There should be a monthly membership option. Looks like you are north of denver?

You download an app, and you can unlock a car with your phone. No human intervention needed, unless something goes wrong.

It sounds stressful

Do your parents use pay pal? Money is available immediately within US and almost immediately when send overseas. People use Venmo and Zelle too but I only use Pay Pal. It’s extremely easy. But it sounds that they sent the money already

I’d say that maybe you just stay home until your car is fixed.

I looked it up and sadly there’s close to me, I’d love to do that in retirement. It listed only 4 cities in our state and they aren’t near by. Do they have to be near by?

Yes, nearby definitely helps. Like a university area. When you said you drove 45 minutes to work, i was hoping it would be in the direction of a zipcar hub.

There is one in the city next to the city I work at. It’s an hour drive from home actually ugh But if I didn’t work I’d not go that way. But maybe they’d open more of those in the future

Thanks for all the suggestions guys… I appreciate everyone’s input! I was finally able to get a rental car. Heading to work this morning after I finish my iced coffee.