Flynrider
Phoenix,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, February 23, 2010
You bought the car in November and couldn't manage to make the December payment? This sounds like a buy here, pay here deal which would indicate you didn't have good credit going into this deal. You managed to go a whole month without missing a payment and you're surprised that they repossesed? This is very typical for someone with high risk credit. If the lender sees that you are not serious about paying the loan back, they will reposess immediately to protect their invesment. If you had decent credit and were dealing with a bank or finance company, they might let you slide for a month or two, but you can't expect that kind of leeway when your already at the bottom of the credit pool.
"I mailed a payment to them dated for the December 31st 2009. National Auto Sales deposited my check before December 31st."
For future reference, just because you put a future date on a check does not mean it can't be cashed before then. In most jurisdictions a check is negotiable as soon as you write it. It's a bad idea (and illegal in some places) to write a check if you have no funds to back up that check.
Basically, these guys told you a story about giving you your car back on the 15th so they could reposses it without problems. It's obvious that they had no confidence that you were going to pay the loan back and they wanted to get their collateral before it disappeared. If you read your contract, I'm sure you'll find that they were within their rights to reposses as soon as you missed the Dec. payment. You pretty much screwed yourself over on this one.