Centrix Financial Or Resources I thought when they reposses your vehicle they should give you the opporty to pay the balance? Not sell it at auction for $11,500 less that what I owed!!! Centennial Colorado

1. The reps at Centrix should have given you the repo company phone # for your personal items. They usually hold personal items up to 30 days. they are taken out of the vehicle and catagorize before the vehicle is transported to the auction. They can and usually do charge storage for your personal items.

2. It is their choice to give the unit back to you or not. If they do, they will want total past due plus repo fees which are around $300 to $500. Some state laws require the company to give the unit back at least once in the life of the loan and not more than once in any 18 month period. MA is NOT one of these that require this.

3. Vehicles are sold at Dealer Auctions, only people with dealer licenses are allowed to attend. The company does not have to even tell you where the auction will be held. The only exception is Ohio, where private auctions are illegal. If you lived in OH, they would have to tell you where it was being sold and give you the phone number.

4. Vehicle at dealer auctions can go for thousans more or less than what is showing in the NADA books. These books are a good bench mark, they show the differences in regions but do not show an even more important detail that influences sales prices in even bigger ways...market trends. Every thing from Gas prices down to the color of the vehicle can sway the final sales price in either way.

5. What it comes down to is Centrix decided the cost of letting you redeem the vehicle exceeds the cost of selling it and coming after you for the deficency. They typically give unit back if a) there is a good pay history (Late less than 10 times), b) there is a good contact history (i.e. you don't duck their calls, call them back, and keep your promise to pay) and/or c) the vehicle isn't really worth selling at auction (but they usually make that decision before deciding to pick it up).

Most people will walk into an auto dealer, listen to the salesman's spiel and promises, and then buy a car without regard to what the market price 'should be' or what better loan interest rate they could get elsewhere. How many times someone will even claim they were forced into buying the car!

Aretha did not describe the car and its purchase price, and it is also possible that she was a "payment buyer" rather than someone who considers only the net price of the car and the interest rate for any needed loan. We do not know.

It is true that many used cars are sold at prices inflated above the NADA retail price- because that is where the dealer will initially price the car. The buyer must fight to even get the price down to NADA retail.

The auction sale price will, at best, be the NADA "Loan Value" price which is much lower than NADA retail price because the dealer who bought Aretha's car at auction did so to make money off of it. You cannot remain in business by selling things for what you paid for them.

I believe that Aretha would best do the following:
1. Read the Consumer Reports April Auto Issue- visit the public library & ask for it.
2. While at the library, ask for the NADA Orange book and peruse it for various car resale values. This should be very educational.

Aretha,

The only thing that sounds illegal to me is the fact that you were not given a chance to get your personal belongings out of the car. However, that is between you and the tow company who did the repo. The finance co has no part in that.

As far as the default goes, they DO NOT have to give you a chance to make up late payments unless it is specified in your contract. Most states allow escalation of the full unpaind balance along with costs and fees, etc. You usually get a notice of the date of sale, etc.

You could show up at the auction and buy the car.

Banks are for profit businesses. They do not care about your personal situation or reasons why you cannot pay. They hear that stuff all day long every day.

As far as the amount they want you to pay, that is called a 'deficiency' and is totally legal. They will surely sue you and win, and get a judgement. Then it's wage garnishment time.