When banks care more about paperwork than reality, things can get ridiculous fast.

What would you do if a bank refused to give you a loan unless you created documents that didn’t exist? Would you walk away in frustration? Or would you give them exactly what they asked for – just turned up to 11?

In the following story, one self-employed car buyer finds himself in this exact position and learns just how ridiculous the loan process can be. Here’s what happened.

An eye opening experience with a bank

About four years ago, I was buying a used car.

My credit was okay, but I wanted to improve it, so I decided to finance the car.

I had $12000 cash in the bank, and the car only cost $5000, but I decided to finance it because it would help my credit and because I felt it was wise to keep a financial cushion just in case.

Besides, I could pay it off at any time.

Time to go to the bank.

Okay, so I go to the bank (where my money is already) and tell them I want a loan. I give them my last two years’ tax returns, showing I make about $5k0/yr.

They pull my credit, and it’s just fine, with no negatives.

They were adamant about needing pay stubs.

They told me they needed my last two months of pay stubs.

At the time, I owned my own company and was the only worker. I got paid commission on an irregular basis, so there were no pay stubs.

They insisted, however, that I absolutely had to have pay stubs.

This seems silly.

I argued that they could see every deposit that was made, wasn’t that good enough? No.

I straight up told them that I would be the one making the pay stubs from scratch. Did they want me to just go make something up and give it to them? Yes.

Well, okay then….

Not taking it seriously, he inflated the numbers greatly.

I averaged about $1k per week ($50k/yr).

I went home and whipped up something showing that I was making $10,000 per week, and gave them the two months of pay stubs they demanded. At this point, I figured they would throw them back at me, and I would just pay cash for the vehicle.

But no… they put the numbers in, and I started getting calls from their wealth management division, offering to help manage my money. I was also offered an interest rate of 2.25% on my used vehicle.

Now, I know, fraud and all that. But I knew that such a small dollar amount would never lead to a lawsuit, and plus forget Wells Fargo.

Wow! That’s one way to turn it all around on them.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit have to say about buying a car.

Here’s someone who does not take banks seriously.

This is crazy!

It seems Wells Fargo may have a bad reputation.

Yet another person talking about the banks’ reputation.

This is unbelievable!

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.