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car out for repossession

3K views 28 replies 15 participants last post by  frugalfranny 
#1 ·
no funds. what to do? do i have to surrender it?
 
#2 ·
My ex-DH had my car reposessed on me after I moved back to NY. I was told that if I didn't surrender it, I'd be arrested and held liable.

Since you have no funds and there's already an order out, you're legally bound to surrender it.
 
#4 ·
it doesn't belong to you. you can get into a lot of trouble for interfering with them trying to claim their property.

i wouldn't advise it.
 
#5 ·
How much is owed vs what is it worth? I realize that you will be without transportation. But if you can use public transportation/friends/loved ones (help with gas funds) for awhile you will save on gas, insurance, payments, upkeep. The weather is turning nicer (even in Ohio) got a bike?

Are they payments outrageous and can be made more managable?
 
#6 ·
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.

When they take it, they take it... with everything in it. Do yourself a favor and remove all your personal items.

It may be too late, but try calling the loan company and ask for a refinance... lower payments, but longer loan.
 
#18 ·
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.
 
#7 ·
It's probably too late but try to contact the loan officer and work out refinancing. It's something you should have done before you missed the payments, though but hopefully it's not too late.

When dh lost his job, we tried to work with the bank for lower payments on our truck. They refused so we told them to repossess it. We are still responsible for the amount owing after the bank sold the truck.

When the bank repossesses your car, they will sell it and you will owe the balance. It's in your best interest here to work with the bank.

Don't bother trying to hide the car. They can show up with the police and you will have no choice but to surrender the vehicle or be arrested. Repo's are patient and will wait until you go to work or to the store and take the car in the parking lot. They aren't picky. If you cooperate, you are in a better position to bargain with the bank on remaining loan payments.

Good luck.
 
#8 ·
Don't bother trying to hide the car. They can show up with the police and you will have no choice but to surrender the vehicle or be arrested. Repo's are patient and will wait until you go to work or to the store and take the car in the parking lot. They aren't picky.
Good luck.
Yeah....that! They WILL get it.
 
#9 ·
How much do you owe on the car immediately?
 
#10 ·
I'll say the same thing to you that I said to my brother in law, understand that I love him as dearly as he were my very own brother, he's a good decade younger than me and I watched him grow from toddler to adult, this is being said with compassion, even if it might not read quite that way....get everything that you own out of there. I don't want to sound harsh, but in the end if you can't finish paying on it , it doesn't belong to you. Call the loan company/officer and see if it's too late to refi it if you are desperatet ot keep it. Don't try to hide it, some places you can be charged with theft for that, it is NOT advisable. Don't try to hide it. Don't fight or argue with the repo man either, let it go.. They have a job to do and the law is on their side. Save the money you'd be making for payments towards this and save to buy a car outright, whether it be a used lot or a private party sale. Then this won't be an issue again.
 
#11 ·
I had my van re-poed a year ago February. I tried to get the bank to take it the previous October (the first month I didn't make a payment)...They wouldn't touch it until I was 90+ days in default. I stripped it of everything mine and left it in my driveway in plain sight. A sheriff deputy showed up after the bank complained of me hiding an asset. I pointed out my van and he laughed. The re-po guy called me for directions, he came in a couple days and I helped him load it.

Had to wait another couple months for the bank to get back to me with what I owed. They also offered a settlement $ amount that I didn't have. They (5th3rd) turned it into their internal collections...we talked a while and I offered them $100/month until paid for. I think I have around 11 more years to go :)

You can offer what you think you can afford. If they don't take your offer, they can sue..of course, suing puts them at the mercy of the court and they might get less than you offer. If you are pretty bad off, they won't get more (if you made a fair offer). Just make sure you make your agreed payments and you won't hear from them again.

If they don't take your offer, you might consider bankruptcy..All your financials will be out in the open and the bankruptcy judge will set your payment which will probably be less than your offer.

Take this with a grain of salt...I'm not a lawyer...just the direction I did go and would go if I had to.
 
#12 ·
well, the good news is that it was not repossessed. was frantically trying to get the $1000 back pymnts on it together, when, low and behold, i got a direct deposit from a policy i sold years ago (trailer commissions) for a bit over that. i paid and set up a pymnt plan to repay what is back due. all is well now. thanks for listening and offering advice! all will be fine now as we are VERY MUCH back on track!
 
#14 ·
That's great!
 
#15 ·
I'm glad you're on the right track, but still - keep a close eye on this account. I have friends who were assured by their finance company that their account was fine, then their car got repo'd anyway, because a missed payment from several years ago hadn't been made up after all (so they claimed) and the account was in a perpetual state of being 1 month late (so they claimed).

So just ... pay attention.

Now that the immediate drama is over - how much do you owe on the car, how much is it worth, and why are you keeping it when you clearly can't afford the payments right now?

SELL THE CAR! Buy a clunker for cash that gets you from point A to point B w/o debt!
 
#17 ·
I'm not kidding. Sell the car.
 
#21 ·
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.
 
#22 ·
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.
 
#23 ·
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.
 
#24 ·
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
 
#25 ·
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!
 
#26 ·
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...
 
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