Need help ASAP with auto loan!!

[Creditobsessed12]

I financed my car with a ridiculous car loan company called Santander Consumer aka Drive Financial.  I was not able to get approved through Honda and they were my only option.  They gave me the highest interest rate legally possible 24.99 and now I have been paying for about 9 months faithfully and ON TIME and make even higher payments than the amount due and in 9 months the loan has only decreased by 1000!!!  I'm going crazy...I feel like I am giving away 400 bucks every month for a car I don't even love!!  My payment is $511.69 and I can afford it but it hurts me and bothers me paying so much money for a $20,000 loan.  I tried trading it in for another car just to get a lower interest rate and they can't do it because they appraised my car and it's only worth $12,000 right now and I owe $18,794.  They said the only way I can get another car is if the car is new and put a $5000 down payment because I can't get approved for an old car since my credit is not good and since they  would have to put 6K on top of the vehicle's price. 

I tried talking to Wells fargo about refinancing and they won't do it either since my car is worth so little!  I'm so screwed!  I don't know what to do.   

[Creditaddict]

lets talk about what's on your reports, you get your score up to 680+ and more doors will open to trade in and eat more negative equity.

I would start working very hard at getting all the baddies off your reports and keep making your car payment in the mean time. 

[Jazzzy]

I believe Creditaddict is correct. You have two problems:

1. Your car loan is upside down (you owe $18k+ on a car worth $12k) because of your high interest rate

2. Your credit is bad

You can't fix #1 until you fix #2. You might want to go to the Rebuilding Your Credit forum and let folks help you with repairing your credit. I can see you've made some progress on your scores, but you have a ways to go before you can get good financing. I would recommend a credit union, but you likely have some work to do before they can help you.

Also, you say that you are paying more than the amount due. You have to keep doing this...in fact, you need to cut down on other expenses if possible in order to throw as much money at this loan as possible.

[Creditobsessed12]

I have 4 remaining paid charge offs.  I keep sending letters and like 2 of them came off but I'm still trying the 4 that are left. 

I also have a lot of late payments on my Macys card but it has a zero balance now.

I have a 90 day past due on a well fargo credit card that is also fully paid. 

I have a collection account from NCO that was for Bank of America (I think that's killing me).  I owe 8000+ and the DOFD was Feb 2005.  It's already been 5 years so idk if it's worth paying off at this point.  Plus i don't have that kind of money. 

[Jazzzy]

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@Elizabethd1012 wrote:

I have 4 remaining paid charge offs.  I keep sending letters and like 2 of them came off but I'm still trying the 4 that are left. Good job on getting 2 of them goodwilled off. Keep writing letters on the 4 you have left. See if you can keep sending them to different people in the company.

I also have a lot of late payments on my Macys card but it has a zero balance now. You can try sending Macys and Wells Fargo goodwill letters to see if they will remove the late payments.

I have a 90 day past due on a well fargo credit card that is also fully paid. 

I have a collection account from NCO that was for Bank of America (I think that's killing me).  I owe 8000+ and the DOFD was Feb 2005.  It's already been 5 years so idk if it's worth paying off at this point.  Plus i don't have that kind of money. I would leave this one alone at this point. It's a lot of money. Let it keep aging.

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Credit rebuilding is hard work...and it takes a lot of patience. You've made a good start. Keep plugging away and try not to run up any more debt.

[sleephla541]

Unfortunately I was once in the same boat as you.  I went through Roadloans about 4 years ago and received a 19% interest rate.  You pay so much interest in that first year that it absolutely kills you.

I hope you're able to work through and I wish you the best of luck.  Please keep us updated on your journey.  It can help a lot of people.

[Anonymous]

I can honestly say that I understand what you are going through. I initally financed with Drive Financial as well.

The other posters are right....I made my payments on time for about 6 months and payed off other bad debt that I had. I then applied for a re-fi with the local credit union ( I was a little upside down and had to pay about 1800 but it was worth it) and locked in a 5.9 rate!!  If I did it, you can do it too! Good luck...

[pdq914]

i also understand i had a loan with Drive financial. Not to the magnitude or your but similar. i had paid for a year and then BAM totalled the car. i did not have the GAP insurance on the car and i was 2300 dollar upside down. i had to settle with them for half a few months ago for the charge off on my credit. so what i was building for good came down on me hard. (i drive and 1986 pickup now, and saving the cash for the next car) I also warn you that if something like this happens to your car, they file the charge off the first day of the month following the insurance settlement. which for me was like this. they received the insurance payment agreement on the 26th of February, and March 1st they filed. you are obviously another year in the hole i would consider the insurance.

[Creditobsessed12]

How do i get gap insurance?

[Creditaddict]

most car loans these days come with it