Financing company issues

[flyboynm]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NM

I have a car loan that is current. I emailed them with a question. I received an email back from them stating that they had been trying to call me to answer the questions. I told them that I would go into the office if I wanted to talk to them and to stop calling or emailing me. They are contacting friends/family telling them that they need to speak to me because of the original email that I told them to stop contacting me about. The loan is current and there is no reason to be contacting me/friends for any reason whatsoever. Do they need to stop trying to call me/friends/family under these circumstances after I told them to stop or is it harassment?

2nd question: I went in to their offices and made my last payment. When I did, I asked for the current balance on the loan. I was told the balance I owed but "without interest" - that is the words from the person that took the payment. I asked for the full amount owed and she wasn't able to tell me. Does that sound right? Can they get away with that? My monthly statement showing me what I need to pay doesn't show the balance so that is why I asked for the current balance. I am trying to get together the money to pay off the loan so I can get rid of these jokers but how can I if they won't provide me the payoff amount? I am fed up.

Finally, I made a lump sum payment previously. Can they charge interest on the loan based upon the original amount or is the interest only based upon the amount that is owed with a lump sum applied? In other words, if I owed $10k but made a $5k payment, can they charge me the interest based upon the $10k and consider the $5k payment a prepayment and pull monthly payments out of that money or is the interest supposed to be charged only on the $5k left?

Thank you for your time.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NM

I have a car loan that is current. I emailed them with a question. I received an email back from them stating that they had been trying to call me to answer the questions. I told them that I would go into the office if I wanted to talk to them and to stop calling or emailing me. They are contacting friends/family telling them that they need to speak to me because of the original email that I told them to stop contacting me about. The loan is current and there is no reason to be contacting me/friends for any reason whatsoever. Do they need to stop trying to call me/friends/family under these circumstances after I told them to stop or is it harassment?

2nd question: I went in to their offices and made my last payment. When I did, I asked for the current balance on the loan. I was told the balance I owed but "without interest" - that is the words from the person that took the payment. I asked for the full amount owed and she wasn't able to tell me. Does that sound right? Can they get away with that? My monthly statement showing me what I need to pay doesn't show the balance so that is why I asked for the current balance. I am trying to get together the money to pay off the loan so I can get rid of these jokers but how can I if they won't provide me the payoff amount? I am fed up.

Finally, I made a lump sum payment previously. Can they charge interest on the loan based upon the original amount or is the interest only based upon the amount that is owed with a lump sum applied? In other words, if I owed $10k but made a $5k payment, can they charge me the interest based upon the $10k and consider the $5k payment a prepayment and pull monthly payments out of that money or is the interest supposed to be charged only on the $5k left?

Thank you for your time.

Okay....lets break it down...

A loan consists of principal (the amount borrowed) and interest. When you have an installment plan, such as a car loan or a home mortgage, with a fixed payment, over a fixed amount of time, the payment goes mostly towards interest in the beginning, but gradually goes more and more toward principal as the original principal goes down.

When you ask the creditor what the payoff amount is, they can only give you an amount that is valid for a specific amount of time, because interest keep accruing until the loan is actually paid off. So if they tell you that the balance due is XXXX, that amount will only be valid until the next interest cycle. If you made a lump sum payment, they can only accrue interest based on the remaining principal owed.

Each month of an installment loan the amount doing to interest and the amount going to principal changes. Why? Because each month some principal gets paid, so the amount of interest that accrues reduces. Extra payments (unless you are behind on the loan) go to principal.

I hope that you understand this...please ask if you have any other questions.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

One other thing worth mentioning. Some loans have a penalty for early payoff. Some have a penalty for early payoff within a certain period of time, IE.. 1 year.

 

[flyboynm]

I understand what you are saying fully. What I am bothered about is the "your balance is ____ without interest" statement from the lady. Basically, I was asking for a pay-off amount and she wouldn't provide me with the total because the without interest comment. How do I know that they are charging me the correct interest rate if they won't tell me how much my grand total is?

I do not trust this financing company. After I got my financing through them, I started hearing horror stories from others about the BS they went through with them.

In NM, there is no pre-payment penalty - state law here. This finance company has tried to play the "additional fee for processing early payment" but has had that come bite them before.

What is bugging me is that I am ignoring the phone calls these people are making to me because I told them to stop calling me about this issue - that if I needed to talk to someone, I would go into the office and ask about it. Because I am not answering their calls, they are calling friends and family multiple times per day (5 calls to each person today) trying to get them to get me to call them. It is getting to be a really annoying issue for me.

 

[HomeGuru]

OP, generally the dealer uses a third party lender and does not finance themselves. Why have you not been talking to the direct lender?