Hello all, my sister voluntarily returned (voluntary repossession) her car. She lost her job and could no longer make the payments. the car was a 1995 Neon that she owed $6700.00 on. The car was in terrible shape and was only worth about $1500.00. She let them pick up the car more than 3 months ago. Now they (AMERICREDIT) constantly calls her at home threatnening to sue for $6000.00 (they claim this is the balance). She doesnt have the money to pay anything. She has a disabled child and barely makes the money to keep the roof over their heads. any suggestions on what she should do would be greatly appreciated.
Nothing, and wait for it drop off the reports. Next time the call, tell her that she does not want to be contacted execpt through us mail. Should get rid of the calls. my2kgt
This was a bad bad mistake.Now she's without the car and still owes the money.Before she turned it over she owed the money too,but at least she had the car!
lbrown, she was over three payments behind. Americredit CONSTANTLY called her.They even went to our parents house looking for the car. BESIDES, the piece of crap car BARELY ran anyway. What is your suggestion, since she KNEW her situation did not allow her to pay this debt? What was she supposed to do? Actually, please disregard the last two sentences. Crying over spilled milk has NEVER changed anything. I believe I would have done the same thing... So, I am looking for possible suggestions as to what she can do NOW?
I would send a validation letter. Make sure she knows the consequences clearly if they do in fact validate the debt. After that send a C&D letter that states to only correspond through the US mail. Then, see how that goes. Your next actions will be based on the outcome of the val letter. In my case, I had a repo from 1997 that I just kept disputing. Each time it would come back with the CRA's verified. Finally, I sent the CA a validation letter. It disappeared from my report. I allegedly owed a deficiency balance of around $4500. In my case, the letter worked out perfectly. Maybe because the debt was so old. That may not work out for your sister. It is worth a shot, though. You can also request a bill of sale. They are required by law to let you know when the car is going to be sold and for how much it was sold. If they didn't give that to you, then they are in violation. That will tell you how much they got for the car, and then you can figure out how much she actually owes from there. For example: They sold the car at auction for $3000, and she owed $6000 on the lein. She now owes $3000 plus any collection fees, any repo fees, and any fees that they would charge to get the car ready for auction. I can't see how that would be $3000 more, but you never know. SO get that. Good luck.
Erica Thank you for your informative reply. I thought about having her do a validation letter, but since the repo was SO recent, I didn't know if it would work. I think I will suggest it to her anyway. Also, with the bill of sale, I do not believe that it was provided. Where can we go (online, etc) to find out what can be done to show this law was broken? I was just thinking, couldn't AMERICREDIT "say" they mailed this bill of sale? Do you know if they are REQUIRED to send it by any certain method? sorry for all the questions, but I REALLY appreciate this board!! (and of course, your reply)
Did giving up the car help her ? Did it get get AmeriCredit off her back? The only difference I can see between before and after is the title just changed hands. Also see the post by Erica above:
There is a site that Breeze posted a while back that is state specific. Maybe she will be a dear and repost that site? That will outline the laws for her state and will tell you the answers to the questions you have. I hope, anyways....
