I have a friend that is letting her car go back to the bank. When I was talking to her I told her that it was not a good idea just make a small payment each week then it will not be so bad. She owes alot of it and she feels this is the only way out and get a fresh start. What does everyone think and is there anything else she could do to get out from this car. Thanks

Once you get behind, it's hard to catch up. It is always better to call the creditors and try to work something out with them. They don't want your friend's car, they want his or her payments. From your friends position, this would reflect horribly on their credit report. I would do everything I could to stop this from happening.

Also, if the car sells for less than your friend owes, they owe the difference. I've had this happen with an ex-husband that got a vehicle repo'd that my name was on. I had to pay the difference cause they couldn't find him.

Your friend should call the bank and see if they will defer the payments she is behind, which will just extend the time she has to pay the car off. I have had to do this before when DH lost his job. It's really not that big of a deal, and they would rather have the money than the car back.

I have a sister who let the bank repo her car. It was not good. When she bought her house 5 or 6 years later she had to pay a higher intrest rate because of it.

Is it possible for your friend to sell the car for enough to pay off the note? That's what I would try to do if it were me, but of course she needs to keep in contact with the note holder...allowing anything to be repoed is never a good idea.

Is it possible for your friend to sell the car for enough to pay off the note? That's what I would try to do if it were me, but of course she needs to keep in contact with the note holder...allowing anything to be repoed is never a good idea.

If I were her I would try to sell it are see if the bank will defer the payment`s.

Thank you for the information. I thought it would be a crazy idea for her to do that. We will keep our fingers crossed that she will make the right choice.

Your friend should call the bank and see if they will defer the payments she is behind, which will just extend the time she has to pay the car off. I have had to do this before when DH lost his job. It's really not that big of a deal, and they would rather have the money than the car back.

This is the route I would suggest as well. Basically the bank will "move" the payments to the end of the loan, as stated already by cokencaptgirl, this will make the length of the loan a few months longer.
What this does is to basically catch her up instead of her showing she's still behind X number of months. But most banks will only do this once or twice at the most, so she needs to make sure to stay on track from this point on.

Hope she gets things straightened out soon.

Michelle

I've been in this situation recently, how far behind is she? I could only get one payment defered. But that meant I had enough time to wheel and deal to get enough money together to make the other two payments. (Not my car by the way, it's my Grandmothers). Make sure she keeps in contact with the creditors. In my situation I had them put a hold on my account, so even though I was technically behind they were guaranteed payment on my next payday, it kept them off my back until I got caught up. Good luck to your friend!

I agree with the idea of selling the car for as much as possible and getting out from under the payments if the bank won't defer the loan for long enough for her/him to work on getting more money.

I guess I am very fortunate, we have never taken out a loan for cars, we usually buy outright. Bought the one I currently have for $700.00 5 years ago and knock on wood it is still going strong at 150,000. Now hopefully I didn't just jinx myself. *crosses fingers, while repeating ..good car, good car*.

I agree with the idea of selling the car for as much as possible and getting out from under the payments if the bank won't defer the loan for long enough for her/him to work on getting more money.

I guess I am very fortunate, we have never taken out a loan for cars, we usually buy outright. Bought the one I currently have for $700.00 5 years ago and knock on wood it is still going strong at 150,000. Now hopefully I didn't just jinx myself. *crosses fingers, while repeating ..good car, good car*.

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I would love to know what kind of car & year that is!

I thought this thread should go back out there since everyone is having such hard times right now. There should be some kind of help out there for people. Hopefully hardtimes will not be here for long.

We just turned our car in. Unfortunately we could not do the deffered payments b/c they are a special credit company, which we had to use b/c of our banckruptcy 3 yrs ago.
They were willing to work with us but it just got to the point where we could not keep it up. Plus it was needing alot of work. We bought the car a year ago and have put 2,000 into it and were looking at a couple morfe due to engine problems.
Luckly I love complaining so we are not going to owe the diffrence of owed verse sold. But will still have a repo on our credit