I need urgent advice on an auto repossesion but I am not sure if this is the right board to post on but any advice would be appreciated. My boyfriend broke his foot and was out of work for months. In the process he fail behind on his car note and now the bank has repossed the car. They have given us 21 days to reclaim the car and it must be paid in full plus the repossesion costs. In order to prevent further damage to his credit report, I am going to pay this full amount but I need till Nov. 15th but the 21 days are up on Oct 22nd. I tried calling the bank to explain the situation and to offer to send in money to show that we have full intention of paying off the car but we need those extra 3 weeks. The person I spoke to was totally rude and wouldn't extend us the additional time. I am so stressed out over this situation and I don't know what to do to get that extra time we need to pay off the car before they sell it at auction and he would still owe them money with no car. Thanks for any advice. I am also in the process of looking through the state law in Illinois to see what the repossesion law is in this state.
RE: Urgent Advice Needed - Aut Have you tried calling back to see if you can speak to a different person? How much money do they want? Can you borrow the money from family or a friend for 3 weeks? Can you take a cash advance off of your credit card(s)? What about applying for a personal loan with your bank? Looking through the state law in Illinois is definately a good idea. I guess before I can comment further, I need to know how much money we're talking.
RE: Urgent Advice Needed - Aut It is a small bank so she is the only person you can talk to. He tried before he fall behind in his payments to talk to this person and she acted the same way. That the money is due and she didn't care what his situation was. I have had credit problems in the past so I have talked to creditors before and I have never ran across someone so rude and inflexible. The total amount is $10,000 ($7000 owed on the car, $1000 in late fees, and $2000 repossesion fee) and we have no friends or family members that have that type of money. I am actually cashing in a 401k to get it. Another problem is that I am in the process of getting a mortgage for a house, so I cannot take out any loans, I am already haggling with the mortgage company over my current debt load so they would deny the mortgage if they saw any new loans.
RE: Urgent Advice Needed - Aut I don't really have any advice to offer sorry, but you said you are in the process of obtaining a mortgage, does your 401K having any bearing on that process, just curious?? anyone know?
RE: Urgent Advice Needed - Aut WHAT? $1K in late fees and $2k repo fee? ARE YOU KIDDING? That sounds totally outrageous! Well, I guess your best bet is to maybe speak with the lady's supervisor or whatever and see what they have to say. Speak to the branch manager if need be. Go there in person and let them know that you are serious about paying the money but you are not happy with the way you have been treated. Show them any documentation that you have regarding your 401k. Cry if you have to.....whatever it takes! I understand your situation with the mortgage company and you are totally right. One word of <late> advice I have to tell you is this: I don't know how far behind in payments you were but generally they don't reposess until after at least 2 missed payments. If at anytime you are treatened with reposession, you need to trade cars with a friend, hide the vehicle, do whatever so they don't take it. Just until you can get caught up in payments. I know this sounds shady but what choice do you have? They can't repo the vehicle if they can't find it? Besides, if they put out a repo notice on your car, they have to retract that if you bring yourself current on your payments and fees. I'm not speaking from experience but I know others who have done this. Guess it's obviously too late for you. So I guess try the plan that I talked about unless anyone else has any ideas or comments?????
RE: Urgent Advice Needed - Aut I've never heard of a $2,000 repo fee...the average repo is charged at a rate of $250-500 in the urban areas here in San Francisco. Uhhh...$1,000 in late fees!!!! I'd venture to guess that loan hasn't had a payment in many, many months and they've been looking for it for a very long while. I'd say you are crazy for cashing your retirement in this situation, especially for someone you aren't even married to! But you most likely will, and you'll probably be stuck holding the empty bag someday. Good luck!
RE: Urgent Advice Needed - Aut Howdy, I agree with Spyguyjim. Seriously, since you are not married, what happens if your boy]-friend takes off and does not pay you back. Get something from him promising to pay you. This may sound cold, but if this guy is worth his salt, he will have no problem signing a note. If he gives you a hard time, then you need to rethink giving him the money for the late fees and repossesson charges (which seem kind of high). Good Luck!
RE: Urgent Advice Needed - Aut be careful about what you are saying. It is NOT true that once your payments are caught up they cannot take the car. The minute you are late with your payment, you are defaulting on your contract. Once you default on your contract terms, even if your payments thereafter are on time, they can still take the car any time (though they will not unless, as you said, you are a couple payments behind)
RE: Urgent Advice Needed - Aut Trust me, I have thought about that. Even considering the fact that this is someone I have known for 15 years, not some booze that I just meet in the bar a couple of days ago. The car is worth $12,000. So I will have him transfer title of the car to me. So regardless of what happens, I will still be legal owner of the car and I have something to show for it. By the way, (thanks to the Internet), I found in the Illinois state code that if you have paid at least 30% of your car payments (which he has) and this is the first time this has occurred (which it is), then the banks has to reinstate your contract like there was no default if you pay all past due amounts and the repo fee, which we can do within the 21 day period. But what is strange about this is that according to the law, they were suppose to notify us of this right within 3 days of the repossession and they didn't. So I had a long discussion with the boyfriend and explained how the state code worked and the fact that they are violating the law by not informing him of this right. So he was going to call the bank today and ask to speak to the manager of the person who has been handling his account and demand an explanation as to why they didn't send him this notice and give him that option. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be a solution and that they will allow him to reinstate the loan if he immediately pays all past due amounts. Thanks for the advice.
