this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024
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I mean, they’re going to be billing someone for every day that car is there and they know they’re not getting shit from cops.
Well, they're certainly not getting it from me either. I didn't agree to them being the ones to tow it, or having my vehicle stored in a private lot. They can sue if they like, but i wasn't a deciding party to the agreement, and I would want to see in writing that I'm responsible for charges I never gave consent to. If it's there in law, fine, I'll pay it, but you can be sure I'll make every possible campaign against it after.
Oh, I was assuming it was something like driving without registration, insurance, or a license; either that or it was a street sweeping thing. In other words, I thought it was a matter of the police pressing charges, ordering the car towed, and then subcontracting to a private company who contacted the car owner directly. In which case if I was the car owner, I'd tell the tow company that I'm dealing with the cops and the courts, and so should they.
If it's a repo situation, then I would probably still ask for a copy of the paperwork, and tell them that I'd prefer to work with the original company who loaned the car to me and hired them, and they should deal with the company who contracted them.
Then again, I don't understand how so many people fall into repo situations. Either pay your debts or give the car back. One or the other. Doing otherwise is just theft. Unless you have the means to remove the VIN, swap the plates, and remove all the tracking gear (which would be more expensive than just buying a cheap used car off Craigslist), it's not even theft that there's a possibility of getting away with. This isn't like a house where the bank only forecloses when there's no other way, a car lender could immediately turn around and make money about a day after you don't have the car. Two, if you were particularly filthy
You were right to consider the registration problem as he pretty clearly mentioned registration in the original post.
How people get themselves into repo isn't too hard to understand though. You don't actually own the car until the loan is paid off. You're fiscally responsible for it, but the bank essentially owns it. From the bank's side, repossession is messy and expensive. If you're quite late on your payment and you walk up to them and say here's a pile of money let's true up they'll usually let you keep making payments. If they repossess it, It needs to have locks changed, rolling codes reset, they're going to sell it on the used market, there's a good chance it'll see some damage in the repossessing, It will probably sell for a loss and then they have to come back after the person who didn't pay their loan for the difference, that person is not likely to pay them.
The people that are in the repo situation, it's not just the car they're behind on. They're probably juggling paying rent, electricity, water, food, the car, the gas. Once that vehicle goes away they're more likely to be late to work and lose their job if they can even find another way to get there. Losing that vehicle is the edge of the cliff to which recovery becomes tricky. With transport you can get a second or third job. If you lose that transport and owe the bank even more money, you can no longer get a loan to get cheaper transport.
Even giving them the car back does not get you off the hook. You've been paying mainly interest on the first 2/3 of the loan. The amount of principal you have paid off is nowhere near the depreciation value of a car. It's a racket. You bought a $40,000 used truck, paid it off for a year, hit hard times, you still owe $35,000 on the truck, and it's only worth 30 grand. Your credit score is going to take a dump when they default the loan for you. You won't be able to get another loan. You could try to sell it on the private market but they're still going to require you to pay them the entire amount, so you're going to need that extra 5 grand, and if you had that, you wouldn't need to turn it back in.
Of all the shit going wrong in their life, being upside down $5,000 on a car they paid the bank $10,000 to drive for a year doesn't exactly make them worry about being good to the bank and doing things the right way.
High-interest car loans are a rather predatory.