I decided to disconnect their electric and water, and I gave them the phone number of someone else that had a furnished house. 

Chatting on the phone can go a long way to making sure you a quality guest.We are pretty far out of town down the lake so we don't get too many party type requests which is good for us!

What worked for me as to building credit is to have a secured line of credit, have a parent or guardian apply for a credit card under your name and have them co-sign, they can pay the phone bill with it and pay off the credit card every month and you'll eventually have a high enough credit score where you can apply for an unsecured personal loan and pay the minimum payments every month.

My advice- get on the phone with as many lenders as you can and see which program will work the best for you and your situation

Talk to the syndicator on the phone and let him know your next call will be to an attorney to charge him with fraud if he doesn't wire the money to your account by COB. 

A phone call to a few different providers is the best way to educate yourself with respect to what is available and what will best serve your specific needs. 

No cash, The rest come in as "manual" credit card or ACH payments online or over the phone. 

My mother and father-in-law (she is an office admin at a RE brokerage and a Realtor) just refinanced their home using a simple interest mortgage.

Hopefully admin won't remove it.

I'm comfortable quickly running the math in my head or on my phone.