PLEASE help!! They say I have 1 hour!

[dharma_love]

I received a letter in the mail concerning an "account balance" I owe from 5 years ago. I had a repossesion in June of 98. I bought the car in New Jersey and it was collected from Houston, T.X. The collection agency (Consumer Interchange) is in Buffalo N.Y.
I talked to the Consumer Interchange man on the phone and he said I owed $3026.55 but I could settle it now for 1200. I don't know what to do!?! He wanted my checking account info and I said he'd have to call me back in an hour. As far as I knew I owed nothing. This is the first I heard of it at all. He said the car was auctioned and this was the remaining bill. Can you help???

 

[dharma_love]

correction

The repo was in Jun.95, not 98

 

[SCREWCREDIT]

hrm

Typically when a reposession takes place, they auction the car off. They use that money to satisfy the loan you took out. Naturally your car has depreciated from the time you bought it to the time of the reposession. So what happens is, if they sell the car and apply the money generated towards the amount you owe them on the loan but because it was an a) an auction and b) the depreciation scale in the cars value, they won't get close to the same dollar amount you financed meaning if theres a balance owed after they pay for their towing expenses (paying the employee involved in repoessing the car, gas for the truck used, time in attempting to collect the debt and the car) you're still responsible for the remaining balance.

As for paying him, that's entirely your decision. Keep in mind whatever decision you make, your credit file is already scorched and the chances of you being able to achieve financing on another car anytime soon either way are very slim. A paid account looks better than unpaid account but the accounts history wont change either way.


Good luck.