| Collector asking for more than owed - help!!
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? NC
Hi,
I have a simple interest contract with an automotive financing group. The first payment began on 1/1998 and was a 5 year contract to pay. Over the years of the contract, I was late several times. Mainly due to a lawsuit I had over the car relating to the lemon law, which I won. The winnings, however did not cover the cost of the car after my lawyer took his cut, so I was stuck still owing money on the car. In the last year of the contract, my co-signer went bankrupt, so my account was turned over to the bankruptcy department and I no longer got statements on my car. I called them and they told me to continue making payments on the car until July 2003 due to some payments that I had pushed out. They also said to call in July for that final payment amount.
In July 2003, I attempted several calls to that same department but could not get anyone to a live person. I had hold times of up to 45 minutes, so I finally concluded that they would either call me, as I left my number with the admin or they would send a letter. After a couple of months I did get a letter stating that they were going to reposses, but it listed no dollar amount owed. I tried to call again to that department and still could not get them to the phone.
Finally, in April of 2004, I got a letter from an attorneys office attempting to collect the account. They stated that I owed $2,183.96 on the car. I've heard of nightmares where people attempt to get their titles and are overcharged, but this was really high, so I called the attorney's office and asked for a copy of my contract and the payment detail records. Once I got those, I went over the payments and concluded that they were incorrect on that amount. I called the rep at the attorney's office and she and I both went over the contract and the payments and determined that when the account was charged off, the bankruptcy department added my down payment and rebate of $2100.00 back to the original debt. The total sales price was $16,682.00 and my cash + rebate was $2100.00. My contract amount to repay was $14,582.00 and my total payments were $14,418.48 leaving a balance due of $163.52. If I were to pay them what they state I owe, I would be paying them a total of $16,608.44 which is almost equal to the total sales price and would be almost paying my down payment and rebate back to them. As to any late payments, they were cancelled out due to my paying $9.00 more than my contractual payment amount each month. At one point the rep and her manager thought that the company may have charged me for a repossession, but since a repossession never occured, they couldn't have charged me for it. Both the rep and the manager agree that I do not owe all of this money. The rep was actually elated that she got to help someone who did not owe a huge account instead of having to harrass someone into paying, this was a first for her.
The manager took my file to the attorney for the firm and showed him the case. The attorney refuses to budge on the $2183.96 becaues it means that their firm loses out on what they purchased the account for. After several phone calls, the rep and her manager stated that they cannot settle the account for less than $1900.00 in order to get me my title to the car. I've told them that they can come get the car, the value of it is $0 due to its reputation and it has damage where a tree fell on it when I parked it in the backyard over a year ago and took it off the road. Of course they do not want the car back as it will do nothing for them. I've asked my attorney to get involved and he is negotiating with their attorney, but so far this has cost me $200.00. I have had the debt removed from Equifax and Experian, but TransUnion keeps updating the account when I dispute it so I placed a comment concerning the account on file. Is there anything else that I can do before my attorney's costs become more than what they claim I owe? I already owe my attorney more than what I originally owed on the car. | 
01-08-2005, 09:18 AM
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