k9t8m

My friend has an 07 LT that she bought in may. She thought the dealer was doing her a favor by financing her without a cosigner and letting her have the loan in her name alone. The problems is that her finance rate is 11.9% and her payments are absolutely astronomical. We have been to the bank several times to talk about options to refinance or extend the loan or even ad a cosigner, and they say they cannot do anything that will drop the payment over $45 a month. The car only books out for around $14k or so and she still owes $17. What do we do>? Has anyone ever been in a similar situation like this before?

We have been back to the dealership to see what they can do and they suggest she gets into a cheaper car, but the problem is they will only give us $12k on trade and just tack the rest on the new car loan. I absolutely refuse to see her drive an Aveo and be paying just as much for it as shes paying for the HHR now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

R CA HHR

I am in the same situation right now, my credit sucks and I picked up our 06 2LT for 15,??? a year ago and now my payoff is like 18,000. My interest is closer to the 18% mark and if I remember right by the time I pay this thing off I will have around 30,000 into it. I have a 7 yr loan with no down and no cosigner my payment are over 430.00 a month I know people drivin 300C's for less than this a month. The only thing I can do about it is make every payment on time for 2 years and show I am more responsible than I used to be then try to refinance with a better rate.
Tell your friend to make sure she gets the payments in ontime and dont get any other credit lines open that could help her drownd and in time she may be able to get a better rate.
I have no experiance in this department other than I'm livin' it right now so I hope my advice is correct because thats what i'm doin.

Old Ray

Firist my disclaimer. I don’t know what I am talking about and even if I did it’s just my opinion.

She has signed a legal contract and she is on a very costly way to establishing a credit record. Reading between the lines (always dangerous) it sounds like the previous credit rating for wherever reason wasn’t established. Tough situation, tough decision. A seconded mortgage and pay off the loan gains nothing or little. My advice (worth nothing) is to have a lawyer write a letter offering to renegotiate the loan with the carrot being that she will default and let the car be repossessed if necessary. There goes the credit rating but no payments. In my province (state) it is either seize or sue but not both.

R CA HHR has the right idea, but don’t get hung up about how much the total paid will be, that’s just the way it is.

Any ideas Mr. Kingfrog?

an08HHR

Never believe a salesperson. your first mistake.

Before buying a car or anything else, make sure you can pay and find out what the final cost will actually will be. I would never buy a car that the rates you payed. You can alway find online caculators to help you determine what you can afford / and/or what payments will be. What should you do now? well I certainly would be calling around for the lowest rate I could find to pay off that load and refinance. If you are stuck with what you have then you better try to cut back on some other spending and make some larger payments to get the balance owned down as much and as fast at possible.

Ah, yes I am sure Mr. Kingfrog will enlighten us all with his wisdom. His presence makes this forum enjoyable.

terry44030

You must either a) have no established credit, b) have "less than average" credit or c) have less than average brain matter. The price of establishing and/or fixing credit is very high. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I've been there. Unless you want to REALLY trash your credit, all you can do is suck it up for about 18 months, then refi for a better rate.

Snoopy

You give most of the facts. But what is your primary complaint/objective???

Can she make the payments BUT feels "used" because of the high interest rate? And thus, wishes to reduce the monthly payments as well as the overall debt?

OR, is she having trouble making the payments?

OR, is it a little of both?

This, as a last result, is an excellent suggestion, IMO......

If you are stuck with what you have then you better try to cut back on some other spending and make some larger payments to get the balance owned down as much and as fast at possible.



And, she now has established SOME worthy credit.

k9t8m

The last think we want is to get the car repossessed so right now we are just looking to lower the monthly payment, and hopefully reduce her interest rate, while keeping her credit decent.

chingchonger

If you have gap protection and your car suddenly "disappears" and never comes back or it's completely totaled, you're off the hook from the loan. The only thing lost is the down payment.

WhiplashHHR

My guess is she's going to have to stick with that payment for a couple of months than shop around trying to refinance. I financed my 2000 MRS Spyder for 18.9% because I wanted it and there was something on my credit report that wasn't mine. I had that item deleted and a month later refinanced through my credit union for 6.25%. The end result was a cheaper payment and 3 years shorter all over the interestrate. I would also check your credit report and see whats on it.

chooch

Here in Canada (pretty sure in the usa too) you can get GM financing at zero % for up to 5 years. Pretty sure most dealerships have been offering this rate on just about every single car and truck since early 2007. The big 3 american car manufacturers are hurting for sales and they have tons of incentive programs to get people to buy american vehicles. In yesterdays paper here in Vancouver, GM had a full page add offering :discounts, cash back, a reduction of 1% sales tax and zero % financing for up to 60 months on APP. I think your friend bought at the wrong time and as Snoopy mentioned seems your friend will have to cut back on any needless spending habits to balance out the financial hardship. I too had a mortgage, car payments, food bills, tv and phone bills i had to pay every month...so i looked at my cash flow and did what i had to do to pay and still stay afloat.