AboutMike Weikle Expertise Banking Lender Liability; Insurance Coverage; Consumer Rights; Bank Fraud; Criminal: White
Collar Crime; Fair Debt Collection Practices Act; Directors and Officers Liability
Experience Commissioned National Bank Examiner 7 years; President of Two Community Banks; Division Claims Specialist for American Bankers Association Sponsored Insurance Program; Carter Member of the Bank Fraud Team of the Office of the Comptroler of the Curency "OCC" (National Banjk Examiners); Attorney previously representing FDIC and Resolution Trust Corporation as well as consumers and commercial borrowers in claims against the banking industry; Former Data Processing Systems Examiner for the OCC; Expert Witness on variety of banking issues in both state and federal court.
Education/Credentials Certified Public Accountant;
JD -- West Virginia College of Law - Order of the Coif
Data Processing Training Old Dominion Bank and IBM
Question We have a car that we have purchased March of 2008, I've
been trying to get the car re-financed with no avail and
now I can't no longer afford to pay the monthly. I live in
California, 93010, my question is, is this going to be
considered a repo., will I be liable for the rest of the
money owed? I don't have any clue about this kind of
things. Will the lender file a suit against me? What other
consequences am I facing if I decide to turn the car over?
Is there a law on collectors contacting me for my life?
The lender is AmeriCredit
The dealer is Saturn
thank you
Daniel
Answer Why have you been unable to get the car refinanced? I assume your credit was good enough to get it financed. Thus, it would seem you could get it refinanced unless you owe more than the value of the car. Can you sell the car for enough money to pay off the loan. I assume that you cannot or you would not be asking the question, but I did not want to assume too much.
Generally repossessions are not reflected on your credit report. What is reflected on the credit report is how you paid your loan and did you pay it off in full and on time.
As for the Bank suing you, that would depend on how much you would still owe once the car is sold and the proceeds applied to the loan balance. No matter what it is worth you can do better selling it and get more than the Bank can get at a repo sale because the person buying at the Bank sale will offer substantially less than the car's book value because it is a bank repo. And, the Bank does not have to get book value when they sell it. All the bank is required to do is hold the sale in a commercially reasonable manner. This does not mean they have to get the best price. Thus, if they sell it, the car will be sold at substantially less than it would sell for if you were selling it. And, they can under most circumstances come to you to repay the balance.
That said, most Banks do not want to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit to collect the balance. Most banks will work with you if you show an interest in paying them off. Generally, the Bank will allow you to pay off the balance in payments suited to your budget so long as they will get paid off on the entire balance within a reasonable period of time.
Whether they sue you or not will likely depend on how much you owe them. If the amount is less than $5,000 they likely will not want to sue you but will turn it over to a collection agenet who may file suit if you refuse to make an agreement to pay the balance.
As for your credit record, federal law requires negative credit history (other than bankruptcy) drops off your credit report after seven years.
You may also have defenses to payment on the loan that you are likley not aware. However, to assess this I would need to talk to you. I do not practice law in California, but, depending on my assessment, I may be able to refer you to an attorney in California that handles consumer financing transactions.
If you want to talk, send me your phone number and I will call you. My e-mail address is mikeweikle@weiklelaw.com. Our discussion will be at no cost to you as I do not practice law in California. I just want to make sure you get all the information you need to make a decision as to how to go forward in resolving this issue.
