Fyi
DALLAS,#2UPDATE Employee
Sat, April 19, 2008
first of all americredit did not invent the term of the meaning of SIMPLE INTEREST LOANS. Secondly you signed the contract with the at the dealership and since you did not ask the finance person about the daily interest that is clearly stated in your contract- i will assume you did not read the contract probably because you were just happy that any finance company would give you a laon- i am guessing your credit score was already below 600. And a deferment helped you by bringing down your delinquency rather that continuing to bill you for each day you were late and to use all 8 deferments is really abusing the systems. sounds like your problem is more of an affordability issue to me- sound fimiliar, words of advice- pay your bills ontime as specified in your contract and you would never have to worry about daily intereset and i wont have to call you
Nikki
Coconut Creek,#3Consumer Suggestion
Wed, March 19, 2008
No where does any paperwork explain how simple interest loans work, only that your loan is a simple interest loan. Many auto loans are these days. Here's my understanding of how it works. I am not a financial advisor, or in the business, but I think I have the general gist of it. Say your payment is $400 per month and $300 this month is supposed to go to interest and $100 towards principal. $300 = $10 per day interest (your company may use exact days such as 31 days or 28 days, but this is the general idea. Say they post this payment 30 days after your last one. You will be charged $10 per day interest, just like it's supposed to be. Now, say you make your next payment 45 days after the last one (only 15 days late). You will be chared 45 days of interest ($450, or a few cents off because the last payment reduced your principal balance). Out of your $400 payment, none goes to principal and you are now behind $50 in interest charges. Say your next payment is only 15 days after the last one (this one is ontime). $150 goes to interest, plus the $50 you were over last month, and $200 goes to principal. This does not take into account any additional late fees added because you are more than a certain amount of days late. Now, say you ask for a deferment. They put the payment on the end of the loan. However, the next payment you make is now charged for 60 days of interest ($600). You make your $400 payment and none goes towards principal and you are now $200 behind in interest. You then make your next payment 30 days later so the $300 goes to interest, plus the $200 behind in interest, leaving you still behind $100 for interest. So, that month, you had no money going to principal either, all to interest. Same with the next month. And this is only if you are ontime! At least three months of payments wasted, all going to interest and none towards principal. If you keep decent records of payments, you can go online and find a simple interest loan spreadsheet. Enter your loan amt, interest rate, months, and enter all your payments on the date you made them. See what balance that shows. Also, try to take into account all the additional late fees added if your company does this. Many companies also do not allow you to extend your contract ending date when you request a deferment, but it looks like your did. Hopefully they allow you additional time to pay the rest off.