A story with a warning

[Skulls22]

Unbelievable! How could anybody screw you like this? Greed for money is killing us...

[dedalos]

How come I am not buying the story?  

Toyota gave you a loan for a car worth as match as you make per year without a cosigner?  
You had no idea your payments were not going through?  Really?  That would have been your full paycheck.  No clue why the extra money in the bank?
Car companies will do everything they can to get payed instead of repossessing a car.  They lose a ton of money on a repo.
Your bank removed your mother from your account?  Funny coincidence eh?  Oh, they also did not inform you lol
You know 7 people that the same thing happened to?
BTW, it takes 90 days before they start thinking about a repo and I am sure, you got no mail or calls about when will you make the payments because since it is not required (according to you) Toyota decided they would rather not try to get paid.
I forgot, your moms account got locked because? . . . .

Looks like someone is trying to get back at Toyota for not making their payments on time  

[Dichotomy]

George is probably still trying to figure it out.

Blue I'm sorry you have to deal with this.  

After my first divorce the ex got the car and the payments.  Of course she got it repo'd.  A few months later Ford starts harassing me.  I send them the decree and they say they don't care and I need to make the account good for past dues.  I got fed up with it found out the name of the CEO of Ford, sent him copies of everything, and explained my situation.  Within two weeks my account was cleared and my credit reports were fixed.  Not saying this will work for you but you are dealing with drones.  Go over their heads until you find an empathetic ear.  

I'm considering writing Toyota credit and telling me what I think of them even though I don't and never intend to do business with them.  

[eagl]

dedalos,

It's probably a true story.  It happens every once in a while that a car dealership (or more than one) near a military base starts making questionable loans with the objective of screwing young military members out of a lot of money.  It's sort of like the bad mortgage loans, but with cars.  The loan officers at the dealership know that the kid has a "secure" salary and a boss who will make the kid stay on base in the dorms if that is what is necessary to pay the loan, so they make loans that would not normally be extended to people with normal jobs.  The dealer wins because he moves cars, the loan guy wins because he sold a loan, toyota wins because again they sold the car, toyota financial wins because "big money" loans to banks and other financial institutions are nearly 0% now, and a kid buying a new car on a military salary is going to end up paying a few percent interest even though the lender is getting the money essentially free.  If and when the loan defaults, either through inability to pay or in this case, the lender playing games, the car is repossessed and the kid gets screwed.  Guess what - the lender still makes a profit on the interest paid to that point, and the dealer gets back a lightly used car since many (most?) servicemembers take good care of their cars, and they're often very low mileage too.

It's basically a huge scam targeting military members, and several car dealerships near Sheppard AFB have at various times been blacklisted for these kinds of predatory loans.

My suggestion is to write both your federal and state congressmen.  The state might be able to adjust state law to address the problem, and the fed congressman may have suggestions on various federal statutes that have been aimed at preventing this sort of thing.  For example, if you were deployed or TDY when the car was repossessed, the lender would be in violation of federal law aimed at keeping this from happening.

I do suggest that you first tell your commander, and ask permission to include your commander's name and contact information so the congressman can verify your story.  Don't want to blindside your boss with a congressional investigation...

[eagl]

The suggestion to have your Mom also write her congressional representatives is very good too.  She's been dragged into this and is suffering financial hardship during a recession due to both military regulations and financial predatory acts against a servicemember during a time of war.

If you get nothing with that, give the local news stations a call.  If they pass on the story, get a civilian lawyer and offer the lawyer 100% of any damages if he can get your credit record fixed and your car back, plus refund on your and your Mom's additional expenses.

[ROX]

Have YOUR Mother call HER Congressman.

Play the vet angle. Mention it's happening to lots of vets.

Call a local Virginia TV station. They love juicy investigative scandals and they can play the vet angle.You never want to deal with them again. Don't. Let others make their lives miserable.


wrongway

Any decent TV station in a market with active military will jump on a story like this like mud on a pig.  Why?  It's in their best interest.  Call.  If you don't hear back within a day or two go down to the station and ask to talk with "the News Director".

PS--it's not about the money...it's about making a massive international company do the right thing.

[dedalos]

dedalos,

It's probably a true story.  It happens every once in a while that a car dealership (or more than one) near a military base starts making questionable loans with the objective of screwing young military members out of a lot of money.  It's sort of like the bad mortgage loans, but with cars.  The loan officers at the dealership know that the kid has a "secure" salary and a boss who will make the kid stay on base in the dorms if that is what is necessary to pay the loan, so they make loans that would not normally be extended to people with normal jobs.  The dealer wins because he moves cars, the loan guy wins because he sold a loan, toyota wins because again they sold the car, toyota financial wins because "big money" loans to banks and other financial institutions are nearly 0% now, and a kid buying a new car on a military salary is going to end up paying a few percent interest even though the lender is getting the money essentially free.  If and when the loan defaults, either through inability to pay or in this case, the lender playing games, the car is repossessed and the kid gets screwed.  Guess what - the lender still makes a profit on the interest paid to that point, and the dealer gets back a lightly used car since many (most?) servicemembers take good care of their cars, and they're often very low mileage too.

It's basically a huge scam targeting military members, and several car dealerships near Sheppard AFB have at various times been blacklisted for these kinds of predatory loans.

My suggestion is to write both your federal and state congressmen.  The state might be able to adjust state law to address the problem, and the fed congressman may have suggestions on various federal statutes that have been aimed at preventing this sort of thing.  For example, if you were deployed or TDY when the car was repossessed, the lender would be in violation of federal law aimed at keeping this from happening.

I do suggest that you first tell your commander, and ask permission to include your commander's name and contact information so the congressman can verify your story.  Don't want to blindside your boss with a congressional investigation...

Understood.  However, it is not the loan officer at the dealer making the loan.  It is a bank.  He just submits the paper work to the one that pays the better commissions.  In this case however, it is not one of those banks looking to give out loans at any cost.  It is Toyota credit.  Those companies use match higher requirements before giving out a loan.  Give it a try and you will see how harder it is.  In addition, companies like that are not out to screw anyone.  They are out to make money.  How does what he claims happened make money for Toyota?  How does it for any bank?  I know it is easy to say the big bad bank is out to get him but how on earth would a bank make money out of a repo?

So, no, they are not out to cause any of this.

However, lets say that they are, everything I said still applies.  He got a loan equal to what he makes per year for a car (BS if you ask me.  No way Toyota gave him that).  Then he has no clue that the car is not getting paid (we are not talking about 20$ here that he could miss right?) He does not get any mail or calls (total BS) his moms account gets locked and he knows 7 guys that this happened too, and then he blames the bank for being out to get him?  And BTW, he does not have a secure job.  The military is a hazardous job .

Lets just think through it for a bit.  If all of the above is true, what do you expect the bank to do?  As far as they know they have a guy that has not made any payments and has not contact them in 3 months.  All they can hope for, is to cut their losses. 

The main reason I don;t buy his story is the presentation.  The bank took a loss on this so NO, they were not trying to get him.  He just needs to admit that he made some mistakes.

[CAP1]

Any decent TV station in a market with active military will jump on a story like this like mud on a pig.  Why?  It's in their best interest.  Call.  If you don't hear back within a day or two go down to the station and ask to talk with "the News Director".

PS--it's not about the money...it's about making a massive international company do the right thing.

reading what eagl said, he's probably right. a local dealer pushing crap through, taking advantage of the servicemen........

 there's a couple of those "payday" loan agencies right around mcguire/ft. dix. i think i recall hearing that they charge some outrageous interest rates........

[CAP1]

Understood.  However, it is not the loan officer at the dealer making the loan.  It is a bank.  He just submits the paper work to the one that pays the better commissions.  In this case however, it is not one of those banks looking to give out loans at any cost.  It is Toyota credit.  Those companies use match higher requirements before giving out a loan.  Give it a try and you will see how harder it is.  In addition, companies like that are not out to screw anyone.  They are out to make money.  How does what he claims happened make money for Toyota?  How does it for any bank?  I know it is easy to say the big bad bank is out to get him but how on earth would a bank make money out of a repo?

So, no, they are not out to cause any of this.

However, lets say that they are, everything I said still applies.  He got a loan equal to what he makes per year for a car (BS if you ask me.  No way Toyota gave him that).  Then he has no clue that the car is not getting paid (we are not talking about 20$ here that he could miss right?) He does not get any mail or calls (total BS) his moms account gets locked and he knows 7 guys that this happened too, and then he blames the bank for being out to get him?  And BTW, he does not have a secure job.  The military is a hazardous job .

Lets just think through it for a bit.  If all of the above is true, what do you expect the bank to do?  As far as they know they have a guy that has not made any payments and has not contact them in 3 months.  All they can hope for, is to cut their losses. 

The main reason I don;t buy his story is the presentation.  The bank took a loss on this so NO, they were not trying to get him.  He just needs to admit that he made some mistakes.

paperwork can be "massaged" to make it all look kosher.

 that being said....when i bought my 83 mustang, i was that young........i don't think i was making much over 20k/year.......ford motor credit took me on....although they did want a co-signer.
 something funny about that....the first dealer i went to kept trying to tell me i couldn't afford, and/or didn't want a mustang. kept trying to tell me i wanted an escort. i asked him if i could get a 5.0 in the escort....he said no, but i didn't need or want that power anyway.
 after a few choice words(not very nice) i left before i took a swing at the tard.

[dedalos]

reading what eagl said, he's probably right. a local dealer pushing crap through, taking advantage of the servicemen........

 there's a couple of those "payday" loan agencies right around mcguire/ft. dix. i think i recall hearing that they charge some outrageous interest rates........

That just shows ignorance on how the system works.   You need to understand the difference between car dealers, banks, Toyota credit etc.  Even if you don't, his complain is that he did not pay and they took his car because they were out to screw him.

There is a reason he and the other 7 did not take their stories to the TV station.  How come he did not get a lawyer and sue them?  Yeah, big bank trying to screw service man.  Nice story, but . . .

[CAP1]

That just shows ignorance on how the system works.   You need to understand the difference between car dealers, banks, Toyota credit etc.  Even if you don't, his complain is that he did not pay and they took his car because they were out to screw him.

There is a reason he and the other 7 did not take their stories to the TV station.  How come he did not get a lawyer and sue them?  Yeah, big bank trying to screw service man.  Nice story, but . . .

i do understand the difference.........the sales guy that handled me actually DID "massage" the paperwork, so i looked like less of a risk. i mean....c'mon....a 21 year old kid buying a 5 liter mustang?

 it did pay off for him though, as not only was i never late on a single payment....i paid the car off 6 months early.

[dedalos]

i do understand the difference.........the sales guy that handled me actually DID "massage" the paperwork, so i looked like less of a risk. i mean....c'mon....a 21 year old kid buying a 5 liter mustang?

 it did pay off for him though, as not only was i never late on a single payment....i paid the car off 6 months early.

Not sure how your story relates to this one.

[CAP1]

Not sure how your story relates to this one.

because more than likely the same thing happened in the beginning. the sales guy went out of his way to make the op's paperwork look "good". send it up the line, and the loan gets approved. everyone's happy....the sales guy gets his commission....the dealer gets their sale...and more than likely a commission on the loan........then whatever bank screw up happened happened, and whamo.....repo'd car.

 now i've no clue about the repo laws down there.....i think they need to give you notice in nj though.......

[dedalos]

because more than likely the same thing happened in the beginning. the sales guy went out of his way to make the op's paperwork look "good". send it up the line, and the loan gets approved. everyone's happy....the sales guy gets his commission....the dealer gets their sale...and more than likely a commission on the loan........then whatever bank screw up happened happened, and whamo.....repo'd car.

 now i've no clue about the repo laws down there.....i think they need to give you notice in nj though.......

lol, if that was true, both you and this guy committed fraud by signing those papers.  Again, you don;t understand how it works do you, lol.  Back when you bought your car everything was not computerized and easily accessed, so what you describe was easier.

Now days, the bank, in this case Toyota credit would pull your credit up, know where you work, how match you make, what dog you have, what other loans you have, what you had for breakfast etc, before they approved anything and then compare it with what you/dealer submited.  I just bought a car couple months ago.  Guess what, they wanted copies of my W2 and 2 months of pay stubs.  Wana explain to me how the loan officer would doctor any of those?  In either case, if some how he managed to do that to get a loan, it would seem that he was out to get the bank and not the big bad bank out to get him, right?

It is always someone elses fault 

[CAP1]

lol, if that was true, both you and this guy committed fraud by signing those papers.  Again, you don;t understand how it works do you, lol.  Back when you bought your car everything was not computerized and easily accessed, so what you describe was easier.

Now days, the bank, in this case Toyota credit would pull your credit up, know where you work, how match you make, what dog you have, what other loans you have, what you had for breakfast etc, before they approved anything and then compare it with what you/dealer submited.  I just bought a car couple months ago.  Guess what, they wanted copies of my W2 and 2 months of pay stubs.  Wana explain to me how the loan officer would doctor any of those?  In either case, if some how he managed to do that to get a loan, it would seem that he was out to get the bank and not the big bad bank out to get him, right?

It is always someone elses fault  

i'm not saying i'm right......and i'm not saying what the op was was true......just saying what my experience was, and that i felt that this could've happened here.

 to be honest, having everything as computerized as it is is kinda scary to me. too much info too easily accessible.

 sometime near the end of this year, i'll be going for either a 2010 or a 2011 mustang......i'm doing everyting in my power though, to manage to have the money to just pay for it.....partly for the very reason of not wanting to have a loan.....not wanting them to be sending all of my info on the intardnets, and also because i think that having cash(or check) on hand will give me a LOT more bargaining power. wish i could afford a boss302, but i know that's not gonna happen........

missed your last sentence.........

someone has to enter information into the computer initially.....and that would be the sales guy or the dealers loan rep.............

 as for my paying mine off early? yes, as a matter of fact that was someone elses fault too. grandmom kept after my ass.