Vehicle Trade in with balance nightmare

[jsavino]

I recently traded in my 2010 maxima for a 2016 maxima. I owed 9k and the car was valued at 13k so I got a 4k credit torwards new car. So i get my new car and they tell me the balance of my old one will be paid off in 2 weeks. The manager even says make sure you stop your automatic payments. A month goes by and i start getting unknown calls with very aggressive reps saying they are with wells fargo and they need to verify my identity to please provide name dob and ssn. Me thinking it was a scam i just ignored untill i get an alert my score just dropped 40 points because of late payment. I call the dealership and they give me a run around making up excuses. I finally go into dealership flipping out and they give me a letter to give to previous lenders stating it was there fault and to remove the latr payment. I call wells fargo and they say even if i didnt have the car the loan was in my name and i was responsible for it untill it was paid off. Now i know they are 100% right but they just gave me a fax number saying they will look into it. Has anyone had experince with something like this? And will that letter remove the late payments? Thank you

[jsavino]

Forgot to mention 2 months later the payment was sent it and the account is closed with no balance

[Anonymous]

The letter most likely won't do anything. Cause when it's late the account is still under ur name and even if it's dealership didn't paid it in time. Wells Fargo is still reporting correctly as late. Surprising that the dealership took that long to pay it off. The longer it take them the more interest they pay on their side without being able to charge to u. Also it's 2 months? How can u not know ur account hasn't been paid for 2 months? When I traded my car in I was also checking the account for the traded vehicle to see if it's been paid off and was calling the finance guy every 2 days when I see it not paid off lol

[Anonymous]

This almost happened to me.  BMW took almost the full month to pay off my old car.  I kept checking just in case.  They told me the same thing.  Stop your payments, we'll have this paid within a couple of days, NOT.  I would try and fight it with them.  It is still in your name until they pay it off.  Keep trying.  Don't give up. Hoping you can get it deleted. 

[Appleman]

I agree on not stopping payments until you see a zero balance when you log in. I never trust the car dealer to get things done quickly even though it is in their best interest to pay off to get the title.

If you end up paying an extra payment the lender that has been paid off will send you a check for the overpayment. 

Really sorry to hear that they screwed your credit with that late. Time to take your cause to social media. Post negative reviews on Yelp, their web page, facebook, any spot that the dealer has exposure on. Be objective and polite with the information but let the public know how you were treated.

Who knows, maybe the dealership could help out with WF and getting the lates removed.

[sccredit]

The dealer screwed up on this.  Unfortunately, so did you.  You knew Wells was calling, the company you had your (almost) previous auto loan with and ignored it.  You could have logged in and looked, or even called directly to Wells.  I've dealt with dealers who delayed payoffs before and it sucks but it is your credit you have to stay dilligent.    

[MTSN]

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@Appleman wrote:

I agree on not stopping payments until you see a zero balance when you log in. I never trust the car dealer to get things done quickly even though it is in their best interest to pay off to get the title.

If you end up paying an extra payment the lender that has been paid off will send you a check for the overpayment. 

Really sorry to hear that they screwed your credit with that late. Time to take your cause to social media. Post negative reviews on Yelp, their web page, facebook, any spot that the dealer has exposure on. Be objective and polite with the information but let the public know how you were treated.

Who knows, maybe the dealership could help out with WF and getting the lates removed.

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This advice exactly. Don't ever, ever take a car salesman or car finance guy's word on anything. Ever. If any obligation of any sort is in your name, make sure the payments are kept current until it's paid off, and if you have to make a payment in lieu of another party, make the payment and then go after them for a reimbursement. 

[melillobm]

I had this problem before. Dealer took more than two months to pay the car off. Lender was calling me and I was explaing the situation to every rep that called me. At the time I was strapped for cash and made the payment the first month, but could not make the payment for the second month because I made a large down payment on the new car. They posted a 30 day late on my credit over the whole ordeal. I called them and they said there was nothing they can do about my report because the account was then (finally) paid off. I was pissed.