car out for repossession

[lisaflex]

thanks for the heads up greebo. just made another pymnt today and will pay remaining back owed on monday.

[Greebo]

I'm not kidding. Sell the car.

[DaughterOfErin]

If your car is on the list, they WILL come get it. It doesn't matter if it's in the garage, or parked outside the grocery store.

Depends on what state it is in. I know that in NYC if it's in the garage they can't break into it to get it if you don't open the door. If it's on the street or driveway then it's open season and they can grab it. BUT you should either turn it in or call them and try to get them to make some type of arrangements to have the payment lowered for a time till you can get back on your feet.

[lisaflex]

think i am okay. paying off rest of behind pymnts today

[lisaflex]

greebo why do you say to sell the car? please elaborate. thankyou

[mek42]

I'm pretty sure the suggestion to sell the car is because the payments are too high for your income, as evidenced by the fact you got behind on them. At best, the payments are borderline acceptable but life reared it's ugly head, causing you to get behind, but for most circumstances this means the payments are, in fact, too high.

[Greebo]

I'm pretty sure the suggestion to sell the car is because the payments are too high for your income, as evidenced by the fact you got behind on them. At best, the payments are borderline acceptable but life reared it's ugly head, causing you to get behind, but for most circumstances this means the payments are, in fact, too high.

This.

You have fallen behind on car payments already - now you're getting caught up, but you've already demonstrated that this car is difficult to afford. It is harming your financial health.

Owing money on a car is bad all around - cars lose money, so not only are you losing value, you're paying interest on that lost value. The best option is to never buy a car you can't pay cash for. Don't fall prey to the myth that a car payment makes a car reliable, either.

You may owe more than your car is worth, but you would be better off borrowing the difference plus a couple k, selling the current car, and buying a two to three thousand dollar car that LOOKS ugly but RUNS great, and keep it well maintained.

[mek42]

Buying a car with cash is still a little ways in the future for us, but we learned that cash has many opportunities that credit doesn't.

First, there are many older vehicles out there with low miles and either high reliability or made before emissions laws went into effect, so poor emissions reliabilty is not a concern. Most banks have a limit to how old the vehicle is that they are willing to finance. It doesn't matter that the 11 year old truck only has 50k miles and will certainly run well throughout the length of the loan, but the 5 year old car has 200k miles and won't last a year (of the driving that we do). The bank will finance the 5 year old car not the 11 year old truck.

Next, individuals request much less money for an equivalent vehicle than a dealership. Additionally, the vast majority of individuals are very willing to negotiate the price when you show up with a wad of cash and say I can close the deal right now.

Lastly, cash let's you close the deal right now. You can look at vehicles, pick one, neotiate price and close the deal during after-hours and then only take one day off work (maybe even just a long lunch break) to go the DMV to take care of title and registration details. With cash you don't need to take additional days off to go to banks for financing issues.

[lisaflex]

thanks for elaborating greebo. there are only about 6 pymnts left on the vehicle. and we are all caught up.

dh hates car pymnts. he bought his used and paid cash for it

we are saving up for me to get a used vehicle paid for in cash when this one is run into the ground.

lesson learned. sometimes things get tough as both of us are basically self employed in the finance/insurance industry. enough said! lol. due to the economic crisis our incomes fluctuate largely from mth to mth....but, we have something in the hopper right now that will alleviate all of this.

thanks

[mek42]

Well, if there's only 6 payments left, get them done but then never, ever have this big a car payment relative to your income again. If you need to have a car payment in the future (we may need to finance one or two more cars before we get moved over to the cash for cars plan ourselves, depending on how long they last) get something much, much smaller, like half or a quarter what you have now.

Good luck!

[lisaflex]

agreed mek....i have a semilarge commission coming in soon and am planning on using it to pay off the car

we had this pymnt for the past 5 yrs.....at that time, we decided no more credit cards and no more pymnts (other than mrtg) ever again. we have not used a CC in that time. dh has two hidden away and we have not touched them! yeah for us. we pay for everything in cash only. which is a good feeling. so, once this is paid off...i will drive for about 2 more yrs (barring no huge issues come up..which they shouldnt as we take care of it) then will buy a car off lease (maybe 2 yrs old) for no more than 21K which is what we will have in cash.

we were used to a much different lifestyle but due to the current economic situation, our situation has changed and it has been quite a ride i must say.

so many things play into it as we all know. economic times, current situations, and more.....we are optimistic that things will get back to what we deem as normal. but, we have chosen to stick w/ cash and no CC's or other debt FOREVER.....

thankfully (and, sometimes unthankfully) we both are selfemplyed and make it happen each day...good times...bad times....but, it all works. this was a scare, but, we made it through and will NOT get into it again...

[Libby]

good job on not getting the car repo-ed just as you've finished paying it off!

just out of curiosity - what kind of car were you thinking would be 21K and 2 yrs old?

[lisaflex]

dont know yet. but, will find it!!! lol

maybe it will be a 4 yr old who knows....



dh bought a cadillac off a 4 yr lease for only 26K. and, it only had 18000 miles on it!!! just gotta look when the time is closer. we'll see.....

[frugalfranny]

Glad the car thing worked out lisaflex.