Posts Tagged ‘car repossession’

Debt collectors, never known for their soft touch, have apparently ratcheted up their offensive tactics (pun intended) once again. An agency in Phoenix, Arizona, called Auto Financing Network (AFN), bullied one delinquent borrower by creating a website using her name as the URL and pronouncing that she hadn’t paid the loan for her Chevy Cavalier.

When the owner missed a payment, the company repossessed the car, informing the owner they were able to do so quickly because they’d hidden a GPS tracking device on the vehicle.

According to the TPMMuckraker’s account of the story, the borrower was apparently able to regain possession of the car after making a payment. But a few months later, when she fell behind on payments again, the company created a website using the borrower’s name with the title, “Jennifer Dicks isn’t paying for her Cavalier!”

AFN President Michael Fischer then began a series of dozens of defamatory and harassing text messages saying things like “I wish you died when you fell off the roof” and calling the borrower a “loser” and “f****** retarded,” said the TPMMuckraker story.

According to AFN’s website, the company’s top three priorities for 2008 are “#1 Treat customer right; #2 Treat customer right. #3 Treat customer right.”

Ms. Dicks has retaliated with a lawsuit.

Have you had an experience — good or bad — with debt collectors?

If you’ve ever missed a car payment — or two — you may have been flirting with car repossession.

For car owners, vehicle repossession can be a stressful, confrontational and even violent experience. Recent accounts have reported on one 67-year-old retiree being shot and killed after confronting a repo man and two helpers who sought to reclaim his vehicle in the wee hours of the morning.

Now, a New Jersey auto finance company is using technology that makes car repossession unnecessary. By inserting a small device inside the vehicle, South Jersey Auto Finance of Glassboro simply transmits a cellular signal to the device remotely to disable the starter. The signal is activated after three days of nonpayment.

In an interview with National Public Radio, General Manager Mark Barr explained that while the newest devices transmit no advance warning of an imminent shutdown, customers are made aware of the device at the time they purchase the car. All of the company’s customers are considered high-risk borrowers, so all vehicles are outfitted with the device.

“Contractually, we have 10 days before charging a late fee, but we’re not looking for a late fee, we just want timely payments,” Barr said. Out of a little more than thousand accounts, Barr said, about 10 or 15 vehicle ignitions are disabled every week due to nonpayment of loans.