Arizona Federal Credit Union They were mean-spirited, unhelpful, unsympathetic, and protecting their interests only. Phoenix, Arizona

I can still make the full monthly payment to avoid my credit taking a hit, but that can potentially disqualify me from getting my loan restructured permanently, since I am getting my loan refinanced due to economic hardships.  I only need to do this for the 6 month 'probationary' period, at the end of which they'll reassess my loan.  Does that sound right?

- They may have a program and it may be totally valid and in 6 months you will get your loan restructured.  But this reminds me of people who are having trouble paying their Mortgage, so the bank puts them on a "Trial Payments" where they pay reduced payments for a period of time.  Only to find out after that time the bank says they don't qualify, so now the bank wants them to get current from the partial payments they were making. 

Don't mis-understand me, I am not saying this is what is going on, just that it is something you need to think about, and need to think about what would happen if they don't refinance your loan.  So unless they give you indications that you are not going to qualify there is probably no reason to stop.  But as a safety measure I would save the difference between what you are paying and the full payment.  That way if they do want you to come up with it because you don't qualify it shouldn't be a big problem, and if they do refiance you will be that much ahead.

My apologies for not linking the two statements together so they make sense.  I was not dishonest in stating my payment history.  July was the first time that I have ever fallen 30 days (or 1 full payment) behind on my loan.  In the 2 1/2 years prior to that,  I have never been more than a half payment behind (remember that I had bi-weekly payments before refinancing). 

Thank you for your advice on paying off the loan Robert.  I actually have been taking the advice I've gotten from several people that I've explained my situation to, which is how I got to refinance instead of paying the fees out of pocket.  I would take your advice on the lowered payments, but that conflicts with my agreement with my bank.  The way it was explained to me by one of their risk management agents was that I need to make at least the renegotiated payment each month in order to keep my car.  I can still make the full monthly payment to avoid my credit taking a hit, but that can potentially disqualify me from getting my loan restructured permanently, since I am getting my loan refinanced due to economic hardships.  I only need to do this for the 6 month 'probationary' period, at the end of which they'll reassess my loan.  Does that sound right?  I'm not sure, since I don't personally know anyone who's gone through something similar.

As far as paying off the loan quickly, once I am certain that I will have my loan restructured, I 've already planned on making double payments, since my money will go a lot farther on 6% interest versus 13.9%, where I still am currently. 

First I am glad if it did in fact work out for you and hope that you can actually pay off the car.  But a few things you wrote are interesting.   I have not heard of a finance company or bank refinance their own loan to a lower rate just out of some "good will" or "customer service" issue.  So if they really did do that, realize that that is not the norm. 

I also noticed how your payment history has changed.  From your original report
This month (July) is the first time I've fallen one full payment behind  in the 2 1/2 years I've had the loan.
But in your update you stated
so when I say I was never a full payment behind, that means I never fell more than two weeks behind...and that was only a few times. 

So either you were not totally honest in your original report and it wasn't your first time you were late, or you have been late a few times since July.

As for them adding the $800 fee to the end of the loan, you better be sure what "end of the loan" means.   I can tell you that it is not interest free, so you are paying Interest on that money.   Then when many banks add it to the "end of the loan" they don't extend the loan payments.  That means on what would be your last regular payment, you end up with a balloon payment that includes this money they added to the end and all of it's interest.  If you don't pay it, since you are not totally paid they can still repossess the car.

While I am sure you won't take this advise here it goes anyways.  If they truly did lower your rate and your payment is less...DON'T PAY LESS.  Continue to pay the payment you were making, after all according to you your payments were not the issue.  Not only will you pay off your car sooner, but you will pay less interest which would save you even more money.

Worked things out with the bank, who acknowledged that they could have done a little more customer service on their end before reposessing the vehicle.  They refinanced my rate down to less than half what I was originally paying, knocked quite a bit off my monthly payment and paid the impound/towing fees up front for me, and put their fees on the back end of the loan..whereas they were originally asking for around $800 in impound/towing fees up front.  To the commentors so eager to take the banks side; I don't think they would have done that if there wasn't some error, or room for improvement in their handling of the situation.
 The ticket for suspended license was knocked down to driving without identification ($50 fine) since I had valid registration, and my insurance cards were also in the mail before I was on the way to reclaim my vehicle from the police impound (re:the day the bank took my car from the police impound). The judge deemed the impound to be excessive anyway, and threw out the original ticket that started all this. 
 I used to pay bi-weekly, so when I say I was never a full payment behind, that means I never fell more than two weeks behind...and that was only a few times.  No bank will even report you 'late' if it's less than 30 days behind. 
Try considering that maybe I wasn't a financially irresponsible person, but someone who had some unexpected financial issues right at the time I needed to deal with this.  I've had a job  since my junior year of high school well over a decade ago.  I have never collected unemployment or government assistance,  and experienced a serious financial bind recently for the first time.

 Not taking into account that my main complaint isn't what happened, but the manner in which it all unfolded, I would say that the replies I'm getting are from people who have very little consideration for others, who don't live in their perfect world where nothing ever goes awry in their plans, and nobody ever falls behind once or twice on any financial obligations for legitimate reasons.  Everyone with money issues regardless of circumstance apparently is a shiftless bum.  And heaven forbid that you expect a tiny measure of 'customer service' from your bank when working with their customers.  I'd take a wild guess and say the people replying are either working for a bank/financial institution, collectionss agency or auto dealer, which would explain how the 'customer service' aspect of my story completely passed over their radar...but I'm not a presumptive d*k.  :)

"AZFCU repossesed my vehicle 9 days afterward, on 8/2, even thought the contract states I have up to 10 days before they will take any action to secure their property."

  That seems to be a pretty clear contractual obligation.   I was with you until you followed it up with this :

" they stated it was viewed as a risk, because my loan was also past due. "

   So, now we get to the heart of the matter.  The vehicle had been impounded for at least 9 days AND you were behind on the loan.   Tell me, since you say you've read the contract,  what does it say about repossesion and being past due.

" This month (July) is the first time I've fallen one full payment behind  in the 2 1/2 years I've had the loan."

   What this really translates into is that you've been late before.  The combination of your payment record, your past due status and the fact that the car had been impounded for over a week, is what triggered this reposession.  You had also let the insurance lapse ( another contract breach on your part) and had your license suspended.     If it was your money on the line, wouldn't you pull the plug on a loan like this? 

"Despite all this, I was told that they had the 'right' to protect their investment if it seemed 'at risk'.  How is it 'at risk' when I'm working with THEIR in house risk management, and in the span of 8 days fulfilled everything required to get my vehicle legally operable again??"

  Simple.   Their investment was at risk because everything you posted makes you look like an irresponsible person.  Irresponsible people rarely live up to their commitments  and you gave this credit union very little reason to think you would.  

" I stayed away from large banks to avoid being treated as a faceless bank account number, and sadly that's exactly what I found the instant hard times hit. "

   Did you think that a credit union would just look the other way when you failed to live up to your contract?   They may be small, but they're not stupid.   So now that you've figured out that big banks and credit unions don't care for your approach, what are you going to do now?  Payday loans or loan sharks (not a real difference there)?   Wouldn't it be easier to take your financial obligations more seriously?

You seemed shocked that a bank would have the nerve to actually protect it's interest.  Well when they agreed to loan you several thousand dollars to buy a car, you agreed that they have a "Security Interest" in the vehicle until it is paid off.

I have some news for you, the bank was right.  Your personal problems are NOT their problems.  There was nothing in your agreement that states if you have what happened that they will just let it slide a few days.  Obviously with your issues they felt that the chances of you actually being able to pay off your loan is not very probable.   Just look at your situation.  From what I can tell you recently had a suspended license, lapsed insurance, out of date(?) registration, your vehicle was impounded, and you are late on your payment.  If you think with that other banks would treat you differently you probably would be in for a shock.

You say that they repossessed it after only 9 days.  Well even if you count the first day as the 24th they did repossess it on the 10th day, but even by your words you had "up to" 10 days.  So even if they repossessed it on the 25th it is what is in the agreement.

I have no other outlet to voice my frustration than here...please tell me there is something I can do to right this blatantly egregious wrongdoing.
- The bank didn't suspend your license did they?  The bank didn't cause your vehicle to be impounded did they?  Every action has consequences and what ever you did to get your license suspended, along with the other issues is what got you into this situation.   So perhaps instead of looking to see what everyone else is doing wrong, take a look in the mirror to see what YOU did.