Question re: Volunteered Repo

[Anonymous]

Have a ? for the pros for my friend - (really)...he voluntarily gave back a car 4 years ago & never heard back on the car until the other day...some CA "purchased" his acct...he completely believes the industry is still the same where they sell it to their brother or sister for $100 or whatever and go after a higher amount...I'm unsure what steps to take to dispute/validate find proof of sale, etc...I just know he should respond...yes?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!

[marty56]

I didnt think there was a surrender options in the car payment world.

Where I live, the credit  unions and large auto loan companies will simply sell the car to an auctioneer.  I see adds in the paper all of the time for car aauctions whose prime source of cars are ones that have been repo'd.

What ever the companies get from the sale will be subtracted from the balance and your friend would have to pay the rest which might be payable on demand.  I dont know if they turn the account over to a CA to collect the rest.

The problem could be that based on what your friend owes and how much the car is worth, it could be almost as much as the original payment.

As far as how much they actually got for the car verses what they tell your friend, I guess there would be a bill of sale since there has to be a title transfer.  I dont think most companies would try to rip someone off

[Anonymous]

I'd like to know this answer too.  We also did a voluntary repo but now they still want the remaining balance on the car which is the same amount per month as our car payment!  What the heck was the point of the repo if I could afford the montly payment?!? And our account just got turned over to a CA this month.

[Anonymous]

I work for a collection agency and we deal with repo'ed accounts all the time.

It is very simple - you still owed on the loan, therefore you must pay the loan.  The only benefit to voluntarily turning in a vehicle you still owe money on is to avoid the embarassment of a repossession.  The same thing happens.  The lender will sell the vehicle at auction, subtract that price from the amount still owed, and you will have to pay the remainder of the money.

The car very seldom sells for as much as is left for the loan.  Cars are not investments; they depreciate at a horribly amazing pace.

And yes, they will sell it to other collection angencies who will then add on interest, although you can almost always settle for the prinicple.  We sue people who will not pay high balance accounts so be careful.

Hope this helps

stan

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it's a bad position to be in. I had a car repo'd about 12 years ago (never should have bought it in the first place--my ex insisted we spend about 50% more money on a car than I thought was prudent) and they hit us up for a ridiculous deficiency (like 75% of the price we originally paid, and this after less than six months of use). I refused to pay it, and it went unpaid. Back then I knew nothing of credit or collection agencies...I just knew I couldn't get approved for store cards or credit cards and pretty much raged at the system for several years...probably racked up around thirty inquiries applying and re-applying for credit cards and whatnot. "It's just one [expletive] repo, it's not like I tried to shoot the [expletive] President for [expletive]'s sake!" is the line I would usually shout when I got turned down.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for the input.  I would think as with any debt, they have to prove the amount of sale...it shouldn't be what was left on the loan??!!!

I will help him craft a letter requesting the info and see what happens, I don't want to let it go totally unanswered

However, I'll say this...I'm glad the bad collectors are finally making the news!!!

[Anonymous]

Message Edited by nfg on 11-28-2007 04:53 AM

[Anonymous]

I am so sorry to hear about your situation...and for what the kids are going through  You are right about the blood from a stone...worst part is if they get a judgment against you, they will just come after your pay (if allowed in your state).

Good luck with the lawyer next week!!!

[Anonymous]

They definitely have a notice of sale available to them if they are a well-run CA.  For a certain company we work with, we are able to request the notice of sale, notice of deficiency, notice of repossession, and all documents relating to the repossession.  For the other one, we receive all documents related to both the applying process & the repossession process.

I think what people really don't understand is how little your car really is worth, and it's worth even less in an auction.  Your car is NEVER going to match up to the amount owed on the loan.  Not to mention all the fees they will add - there are a million of them.

About half our debtors are in debt because they did not purchase some sort of GAP insurance.  They get in crashes and their cars are hardly ever worth what the insurance company will pay and WHAM thousands of dollars you owe on a crashed car.

Often, a CA will settle with you for the principle of the debt, and lop off all the interest and fees.  Don't let them sue you - it's pretty easy for us to win in court as long as we have good documents.

sorry .