December 22, 2008
I’m still horribly embarrassed about the whole car situation. But I’m dealing with it, and this is what I did:
1. Called my dad and had him authorize me to call the financing company. Very very important: they were refusing to deal with me at all, even with his authorization, until it became clear that they would only get money from me.
2. Took down their phone number, account number, SSN, balance to bring the account current, charges for the towing company.
3. Spoke to the company asking them for the procedure to bring the account current or to pay it off entirely.
A) to bring the account current, the owner must:
i) fax verification of employment/income
ii) fax proof of residence
iii) fax three references, one of which must be a family member not living in the household, listed with names, phone numbers and relationship to owner.
iv) fax proof of insurance
v) send payment of the late balance including a $125 repossession fee via money order or wire from the bank: $1932
vi) pay the towing company ($140 for four business days, Fri-Mon)
B) to pay it off entirely, the owner must:
i) wire the payoff balance (good until 12/29): $5611
ii) wait for the paperwork to be processed and sent to the towing company, then make arrangements for pickup for the company. Also ($140 for four business days, Fri-Mon)
4) Apparently our local police department gets in on the deal and has to issue a release costing another $15 before the towing company in another city will release the car. (Of course, why not?)
Thoughts and other obstacles: the timing of this on a Friday works to the towing company’s advantage because they charge $35 for every day that the vehicle is in their lot.
Just because the financing company says that you have 20 days before the car is moved to the auction lot, doesn’t mean it’s true. If the company has a pickup of other vehicles scheduled before your 20 days are up – and that’s calendar days, folks, not business days – then they’ll take your vehicle as well. The financing company rep warned me of this when I asked her, “is there anything else, at all, you think I should know? I’ve never dealt with this before and want to make sure I cover my bases.”
The towing company only has specific hours for releasing towed vehicles, so if your paperwork and payments don’t hit the financing company, and their paperwork isn’t released and received by the towing company, during the specific window, you wait another day, and pay another $35. This company closes at 4 pm sharp, which is another great way for them to make money. Who gets out of work before 4 pm?
Finis: I’m going with Route A because I’m not ready to dig out over 5k worth of cash. I am dismayed at the prospect of not only NOT taking the truck off my balance sheet, but adding the responsibility of another vehicle, but right this moment, I don’t have a choice.
One quarter of the cost will clean out my auto maintenance fund, the rest of the money will come out of my expense fund. It’ll wreck my cushion, for the most part, but psychologically, I’d rather raid the cushion before the emergency fund. I might have to hit that with moving costs soon.
And lastly, I had a serious discussion with my dad. On Friday, upset, I told him that if this happened again, I was leaving and never looking back. I realized that wasn’t good enough, and told him on Saturday that I’m not waiting for it to happen again. He had to promise he would never lie to me or hide important things from me to “protect” me, when he’s really just protecting his wounded pride, or I was outta here, permanently. I can only pray that taking a hard stance will shake him enough to take me seriously, but I’m also serious. I’m not strong enough to continue living my life, looking over my shoulder, waiting for people to lie to me because my own family can’t do better than that. All or nothing, folks.
September 11, 2008
A friend posed this hypothetical question to me recently, and the ensuing bickering reminded me that I don’t play hypothetical money games well:
If your car was completely totaled and someone gave you a lump sum, say, $30,000, to buy a car, what car would you buy? (And you have to spend ALL of it on the car.)
*grimace* Eh. That’s too much to spend on a car, for me. Even given the hypothetical donor, even given the no-strings-attached, even given that the money’s not coming out of my pocket, I couldn’t really get all that enthused about the idea.
Honestly? I like my car. I like the mileage, I like the size, I’m comfortable in it, I like that it’s not brand new anymore (except for those little “personality quirks” she’s developing). If she was *sob* destroyed, I would … want the same car. Boring? *shrug* Yeah. But they don’t make her anymore, so I’d have to get a used version, which is fine, I’m D-O-N-E with new cars, new car insurance, new car registration and all that being oh so careful where I park because I’m driving a new car.
Admittedly, there’s a bit of me that still likes the MiniCooper, the Mazda 3, and remembers that I did say I wouldn’t be buying any more two door cars so getting the same car wouldn’t make sense but …. uh, let’s just say that all the fun of asking me a hypothetical question like that was long gone.
So how about it, folks? What would you get with a $30,000 (to replace your destroyed vehicle) budget? And yes, same parameters: If I had to spend it all, so do you! š
June 22, 2008
The timing belt for the family sedan broke last week:
$40, tow
$150, repair
Truck Registration, due June 30th:
$240
Sedan Registration, due August 20th:
$150
Pfoooo! As if gas prices weren’t bad enough, the cars themselves have to get in on the act. That’s going to make a hefty dent into the car maintenance fund, thank goodness I actually have it set up, though. I can’t even imagine pulling my hair out trying to make these bills fit into an already strained budget.
April 14, 2008
With all the recent car troubles, I’ve been slacking off 100% on the sell-the-truck front. (And in the face of our troubled economy, I’ve got a sinking feeling that, perhaps, I’ve waited too long to sell.)
Anyway, since I’ve been pretty overwhelmed with life, I’ve broken it down in wee tiny little steps that even I can handle:
1. Check for Kelley Blue Book price ranges. This involves getting all the information on the truck including current mileage, features, conditions. I also want to set a baseline price in comparison to the KBB price that takes into account the amount still owed, and the amount I’ve been putting in out of my pocket since last July. Check! Done on 4/5.
2. Go to CarMax to see what they’ll offer. This is just in case they actually offer me a decent price and I can skip the trouble of private sales. Check! Done on 4/12.
Since CarMax only offered me $2000 less than my bottom line selling price, I thanked them and walked out of there. It also took two hours to get the appraisal, which was twice as long as I’d been told to expect, so I wasn’t thrilled about that either.
3. Take pictures of the car.
4. Write a description of the car, and post on Craigslist.
I’ve started #4, but was far too lazy to do the photos today. Tsk. Ah well. Baby steps.
June 26, 2007
BoyDucky’s rolled out his best offer, take it or leave it, in a bid to gain my consent on the car he’d like in a few years: The Honda Element SC. (bleech!)
In his attempt to woo/win me over, he’s offered FIVE CUTE PUPPIES.
HIS:
HERS
What do you think of that? Are five whole puppies cute enough to balance out the decided UNcuteness of that hideous boxcar? On one hand, they are distinctly, overwhelmingly cute. On the other hand, that car is ridiculously not cute. Pro, They’re REALLY cute. Con, I’m not crazy. I can’t handle five puppies. Pro, Puppy breath. Con, having to look at that car everyday. Pro, I have puppy fever and this would hit the spot. Con(s), one bedroom apartment, drive ’til the wheels fall off mentality, he might possibly have been thinking of stuffed Gund puppies.
The jury is still out …. but at least we show the spirit of compromise! š
