Expert: David - 7/18/2009

Question
QUESTION: My car was repossessed about a week ago. I called Nuvell Financial within 8 hours of the car being repossessed and asked if we paid the past due payments plus additional fees if it would still show on our credit report as a repossession. Nuvell told us it would show as a repossession for 7 - 10 years (even after we pay off the car in 4 years). We told them that we would pay the deficient payments within hours plus any additional fees if they would remove the repossession from my credit report. The first person told me that by LAW they could not remove the repossession from my credit report, which I am now learning is a lie. It seems it is up to the discretion of the lender whether they will remove the repossession if we pay the past due balance and get the car back. Is there any advice you can give so we can have this repossession removed from our credit report?

I see all kinds of ads from credit repair companies saying they can remove anything from a bankruptcy to repossessions to foreclosures, which I tend not to believe.

My Wife is in process of cleaning up our credit now and she is trying to find any loophole to get them to remove the repossession after we get the car back. Is there any advice you can give us? We have until 7/24/09 to pay to get the car back or it will go to auction.

My thought is if the repossession is going to stay on our credit report why should we not let the car just stay repossessed? Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thank you,
Ronald

ANSWER: Ronald,

Though you are correct that they can remove the repo from your report it is unlikely that they will.  In most cases that I have seen even when they promise to remove it they do not.

Credit repair is your best bet.  Whether you use a company or do it yourself it is the only legal way that anyone other than the lender can do it.  I will say that if you decide to do it yourself that it must be in writing and worded correctly to be effective.  Trying it online is the least effective way and often ensures that it stays.

Visit www.financialscoringsolutions.com for more info on credit repair.  If you want more info feel free to call me.

Also, if you let the car stay repo'd you still owe the balance of the loan minus what they get for it at auction.  Then they'll file a judgement and start wage garnishment.

David
www.financialscoringsolutions.com
219-718-8566 Direct

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My follow up question will be short. Is it better on my credit and Fica score to pay to get the car back and continue making payments on it (on time this time of course) or since it already shows a repossession will it affect my FICA score just the same whether I get the car back or not? Once again thank you for your help and once my Wife is more knowledgeable in this field, she will be signing up as an person on your site that can help you as I am sure you are overloaded with questions.

Thanks,
Ronald

PS: I tried to go to your website: www.financialscoringsolutions.com and it is bringing up a page that looks weird. Are you in process of building your site and just have a default look for it now? If you give me your email address (public email addy like Yahoo or Hotmail) I can copy and paste what the front page looks like.

Answer
Your suspicions are correct that credit wise getting the car back will not help.  The repossession will hurt for 7 years or until you can have it removed.

I think my site is working now.  I forgot to renew my domain name in a timely manner.

Thanks

www.financialscoringsolutions.com