5 Must-Do’s to Avoid Repossession

You want to avoid a repossession of your vehicle at all costs, the reason being that it’s a huge blot on your credit score and because, let’s face it, you need your car to get around, get your food, and so on.  Just follow along with these five rules and by the end of this you’ll know exactly what to do to stop repossession in its tracks, you just simply have to follow the rules.

1. The most important thing that you have to do is simply to make the payments.  If you need to set up a personal budget for yourself, do it, but you have to have enough money each month to pay all your bills, and that includes your car note.  If you can just do this (create a budget and stick with it), you’re well on your way to avoiding any type of repo.


2. If you have fallen behind on a payment, remember this, it’s not the end of the world, they are not going to come and take your car…yet.  But, if you do miss more than two consecutive payments, then it’s time to worry.  Don’t ever let it get this far, but if you do, look at number 3.


3. By this time you’ll be getting a lot of phone calls, and the temptation is to run and hide, but you have to be an adult and take things head on.  If you avoid those calls, the lender is going to get mad and they are much more likely to repossess your car. But, if you level with them and tell them that you’ve run into a financial snag, then they will tend to work with you.  Think about it this, way they don’t want to repossess your car, they really don’t, it’s a big hassle, they just want money coming in, if they have to reduce the monthly payments and increase the interest rate then they probably will, but you have to talk it out with them, the worst thing you can do is go run and hide.


4. Make sure that your auto insurance is up to date at all times.  Lenders get nervous when your car is uninsured.  Why?  Because it’s NOT your car yet, it’s their car and a car that is uninsured is a big liability for the lender just driving around out there in a dangerous world.  Never let your insurance lapse, even for a month, because it could spell disaster.


5. Make the payments on time…yeah, we know this was number one, but we just want to beat it into your head that you’ve got to be able to make the payments every month without fail.  Never buy a car unless you can easily afford the payments, if you try to “own” something that you can’t afford, you are setting yourself up to fail.  Big corporations may get bail outs from the government…you will not.