Car reposssession

[scorpion6645]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? NC My husband bought a car in California while he was going through training for his job. The car dealer did not put the total amount into the financial agreement until after my husband signed the papers. The total amount of the loan was 4 times the amount of the blue book value. My husbands Ssgt went with him the very next day to talk to the car dealer about the deal but the dealer was out of business. Actually he had filed bankruptsy. His Ssgt told him that the car dealer had done a few other Marines that was and that there was a law suit against the guy that he would take care of it and let him know. My husband was then sent to NC for his duty station. Since the military will not allow you to drive to your duty station from schools he had to leave the car there in CA. It wasn't 2 months after my husband got to NC that he was sent to Iraq for 6 months. On his return he tried to get up with the Ssgt but he had already been sent to Iraq also. Anyway, the car ended up setting in the parking lot aboard base for two years. The finance company in VA was informed of this and called us. (We had still been making payments) When I talked to them they informed me that we needed to get the car and bring it back to NC. When I told them ( husband was already sent back to Iraq) there was no possible way for me to get the car they announced that they would have to repossess the car then. When I asked them if they could bring the car back to the East coast and then put the cost onto the balance we already owed I was told no. So we agreed that the best thing was to repossess the car. Since then they have sold the car and proceeded to contact us about the amount we still owe. Which is way more than what we owed for the car originally. My husband wants to stop payment altogether because regardless it will go on our credit as a repossession. My questions are: is there anything illegal about the first initial transaction? and what happens if we stop making the payments?

[djohnson]

Your husband shouldn't have signed a contract without an amount on it. Then he also had to sign the finance agreement which would have had an amount on it. No finance company is going to loan 4 times the amount of the vehicle. So I really think you or your husband isn't telling the whole truth here. Next, once the repo, they add the repo fees and other fees to the amount of the loan. You owe these. If you do not pay, they will file for judgment and garnish wages or attach leins to other property. You have had a very costly lesson.

[scorpion6645]

I know that the signing of the car agreement was his big mistake but as far as the financial agreement...I've seen the papers, the blue book value for a 95 paseo two years ago was a little over $4000. The finance company charged him 29% interest and it all came up to almost 17,000. There is no way that can be legal. I know my husband made the mistake of being nieve and was very eager to buy the car but that was no grounds for the companies to screw him over as badly as they did. He was not the first to have this done. Like I said there were prior insidences with the same companies. We have looked into see if CA has had any law suites against the dealer but have not heard back yet. I know we will have to pay the difference after the auction but he only owed a little over 7,000 they sold it for 2,500. They say he owes $8000. Something just doesn't seem like it is adding up.

[djohnson]

It actually sounds even more normal now. He didn't get a loan with a principal balance of 4 times the worth of the car. That is the amount he will end up paying because he agreed to a high interest rate probably due to credit issues. Them selling it for less and adding their fees is normal. The amounts you gave seem to fall in line.