In April of 2006, Chandra Ribeiro was a single mother working two jobs, going to nursing school full time and struggling with unreliable transportation. Chandra was driving a car that required constant repairs and maintenance that amounted to nearly twice its value. Her car became increasingly unreliable until it finally stopped running completely.
Chandra's friends told her about More Than Wheels, but she was skeptical. She said that, although she had already worked hard to clean up her credit by paying off all of her unpaid bills, she had a poor credit history and did not think she had the finances available to purchase a new car. Then Chandra met a More Than Wheels employee by chance and decided to try the program.
Chandra worked with More Than Wheels to purchase a new Toyota Corolla with an interest rate of 6.19% and a monthly payment of $292.46 for 66 months. "They saved me a ton of money by working with the dealership to get the price of the car to just $200 over invoice, as opposed to whatever the markup would have been. They also helped with financing. If I had even been able to get a company to finance me, my interest rate probably would have been one of the highest you could find or imagine - a horribly sick number," she reflected.
"My credibility with my social network improved tremendously. Having the car took away the stress of not knowing how I was going to get to class, if I was going to miss an exam, if I was going to have to withdraw, and all the scary things that come along with not knowing whether you're going to get to school and, sometimes, to work," said Chandra. "I needed to graduate from school, and I needed to work hard and save money and make good choices to build my credit so we could own a house and have the things that families have."
In 2008, Chandra graduated from a local community college with a degree in nursing and successfully took her board exams to become a registered nurse. Of her successes with More Than Wheels, she said, "I did learn quite a bit. There was effort -- I guess you expect to have to put in effort once you've made mistakes to the point of having trouble financing a vehicle. And I did have to make an effort to complete tasks that they needed me to complete, but I think it was well worth it. A little bit of work, a little bit of time, and in the end, I got a car, and a way to build my credit."
Chandra Ribeiro was first elected as a client representative to More Than Wheels' Board of Directors in 2007 and she remains a Board member today.
