Avoid Having Your Used Car Repossessed
There’s a service out there called Avert Repo that says it has helped almost 25,000 customers avoid repossession, according to an article in SubprimeNews.com (the things I read to keep my readers informed). The company works as a go-between with lenders and consumers to keep consumers in their cars and banks out of the car-selling business. Talk to your financial institution to see if they work with Avert.
Now, I’m not recommending this company, but I did want to steer you to another website that helps explain your rights if your car has been repossessed: www.ftc.gov. Click on the link to be brought right to the section on your rights. By the way, don’t bother clicking the links at www.avoidrepossession.com. They’re basically useless.
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I found the information on Avoidrepossessions.com and autofinancing.net to be very helpful.
Nick – I’ve got no complaint with autofinancing.net’s material (and didn’t say I did so nice plug for your site). However, avoidrepossessions.com has too many broken links for my taste.
Keith,
Your Guide to Used Cars
Honestly, the best way to avoid repossession is to just talk to your lender. I know that Credit Unions will do just about anything before they repo a car. I checked out the 2 sites mentioned and wasn’t that impressed with the info. http://www.ftc.gov was good though. Another good resource to get repo info is http://www.repofinder.com.
What does this apply if you are in a lease?
Brian -
Good question. You would have to refer to the specific terms of your lease, but I imagine it would be a similar situation. One option to consider would be checking out a site called http://www.leaseguide.com. It might have useful advice for getting out of this situation.
Keith
Your Guide to Used Cars
This site contains free information specifically related to car repossession. It answers a lot of questions related to repossessed cars in case you or someone you know is facing this problem.
hi keith i have a question for you my credit union
send the repo man to collect my car which i was
behind three months, i gave the car keys to the repo man and they drove my car away, i called the
credit union and ask them how do i go about recovering my car ,they said that i have to pay the past due amounts and towing charges, my question to you is would they report that my car was repossess to the credit reporting agencies??
Pete -
This will go on your credit report. However, make sure it also indicates that you successfully resolved the matter to the creditor’s satisfaction. That will have less impact than not paying the debt at all. Head over to credit.about.com for some excellent advice on rebuilding your credit. Good luck.
Keith
thanks. your article helped. i am one of those laid off who was laid off in early 2009. i contacted all my creditors and said i was laid off. i talked to a guy on the phone who said he was putting my car payments for two months on the back end. didn’t get his name. didn’t worry about it till i got a call in oct. 2009 saying i was 41 days late. no problem i thought, 10 days later i got a letter saying i was three months late. i called and found out ‘whoever’ told me my payments were pushed back had no authority. today, i’m waiting to find out if i have a way to work…as i suspect they are coming for the car any day as i was told the car is going to the repossessions dept. i will never do business with wells fargo again…as i have been told by others on blogs this is similar behavior they have experienced with boat, home and car loans from WF. peace…i will bounce back recession or not.
I’m in a similar boat Frank. Wells Fargo are the worst to do business with, this people have no human compassion. I too lost my job and tried seeing if they could work something out with me until I got back on my feet. They refused, now my car will most likely be gone any day now. I just hope this heartless souls at wells fargo realize karma has a funny ways about it.