DriveTime Formerly Ugly Duckling Uses Harassing Collection Tactics in San Antonio, Texas

Here's what you said..."because my credit was not too great".  High interest?  You bet because you were a subprime borrower.  You knew the terms, they were written in the contract, if you read it and you could have turned it down right then and there.

Second quote:  "the purchase price was never told to me".  Did you ask?  If you did not know the price of the car, why did you sign the contract BEFORE knowing it?

The fact they are still calling you isn't their fault!  Look to the next dealer for that!  Why haven't they paid off the loan yet?  As far as Drive Time knows, you are still on the hook for the loan and when you don't make the payments you agreed to, they will call you.  Nothing illegal, unethical or immoral there.  You are on the hook until somebody gets you off the hook.

And finally...

Do you fully understand what you did here?  You've made all your payments on time, right?  As such, you would never hear from them, so what was the problem?  Do you think the remaining balance on the Drive Time loan has suddenly disappeared?  No, its added to the loan of the car from the new dealer.  In the end, you are paying for two cars but driving one.  Not exactly a good business decision.

You chose to trade in an upside down vehicle rather than pay it off. If you are getting calls from DriveTime then a payment is due. Continue to make your payments on the vehicle you traded in until DriveTime receives the payoff from the other dealership. Otherwise the late payment goes on your credit report and ruins your hard work to clear up your credit.

Keep checking with the "new" dealership to find out exactly when the payoff was sent to DriveTime. Many of these regular dealers drag their feet on the payoff - which hurts you and your credit. Don't let your hard work go down the tubes. Keep your payments current with both dealerships until DriveTime receives AND acknowledges that payoff.

The above poster is right - you put yourself in a bad situation by trading in a upside down vehicle. I don't blame you for wanting to get away from a subprime lender, but the method you chose is rough.

You said: "There is no way to get away from DriveTime without negative equity,..,"  Trading an upside down vehicle for another car is one of the worst things you can do to yourself. You just turned a bad situation into something much worse. The better thing for you would have been to pay off the vehicle from Drive Time and then go buy one from somewhere else - with a loan financed through a credit union. You would not have negative equity. You would have a reasonable payment. And you would make sure to not get in deep over a vehicle again.

In addition to what others have already said, you apparently don't realize that a car is NOT an investment.  So unless you put down a hefty down payment you are always going to be "upside down" on your car loan for a majority of the loan.  Unfortunatly you have put yourself in worse shape with this new loan.   Because you have just rolled over that negative equity, you are starting out even MORE upside down.

I wasn't ripped off by DriveTime except that I agreed to terms that now are VERY unreasonable.

- You probably should have empisized a different word in that sentence.  You are correct in that they are NOW very unreasonable.  Higher Risk = Higher Rates; Lower Risk = Lower Rates.  So when you were a higher risk, if a company loaned you money at all, it would be at a higher rate.

There is also one other thing to watch out for, that is did this new dealer do a "SPOT" delivery.  If so there is a very good chance you don't actually have a loan, which would be one explanation why your current loan is not paid off.  If they did do this do not be surprised if in a few days they call you up trying to get you back to the dealership.  Then when you get there, you find out you either need an additional downpayment and/or your payments went through the roof.

You need to contact your new dealer and find out why they haven't paid off the car.  You also need to find out from them the name of the bank you have their loan with.  If they don't give you that information, you can almost guarantee you don't have a loan yet.