@Anonymous wrote:
It's a 2009 Honda Fit, I got it in april. My credit score is 600 that I know of & yes I've tried to re-fi. I have old items on my credit, major thing is student loans but I'm in a program where I don't owe a monthly payment, it does show on my credit that I have a balance thoough.
Your headline says: Upside down on car loan, help! And in one of your posts you say the payment is too high.
Those two points are really two different things.
1) If your loan is upside down, and I'm sure it is, then the thing that cures it is payments over time or a lump sum payment. Normally an upside down loan is a non-issue unless you are going to get rid of the car or refinance.
2) On the other hand, if you are having a difficult time making the payments, that is an immediate and ongoing problem.
The solution to solving the high payment issue is to either refinance or sell the vehicle.
Based on the small info in your post above, it doesn't look like you have the ability to refi at the moment. Your best bet for a refinance is to work on your credit now and continue to make the payments you have now in full and on time everytime until you reduce the principal balance to a refinanceable amount. That may mean you need to pick up a second job or sell things around the house until you have enough extra funds to put toward the balance.
If you sell your vehicle, NOT TRADE, you still have to bring in the difference between what you can sell it for and the outstanding loan balance. Try getting a quote from CarMax if you have one in your area. They offer more than most dealerships and then you will know how much you have to come up with when you sell if you sell to CarMax. You could try selling it retail to get more. Trading it is the very worst thing you can do in your situation. You end up bringing all the negative equity over to the new vehicle and what was a reasonable payment becomes a high payment on the future car.
The really bad part about this is you have to see it through (keep, sell or refi) or you end up with a repo on your credit which will hurt you for a long time.
You can get through this with a plan and a little extra work in the meantime. The important thing is keep your payments on time everytime until you can do what you need to do.
