Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Arkansas
legal rights in colliction law
This is concerning a repo auto. It was sold at auction and we are told that we owe several thousands of dollars. We have very little money do to financial situations beyond are controll. This happend approximately 2 years ago. I know am able to make reasonable payments but the collectors want payment in full or they will sue. can they do this and if so what are the outcome possibilities. Can they garnish my earnings or is this a threat. What rights do I have in this situation if I do not pay.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: legal rights in colliction law
Actually, the rights of a debtor in your situation are non-existant! The car dealers make an industry out of collection. Here is the way it works:
You go to fly-by-night Auto sales and buy a car, usually because you can't go anywhere else. You pay twice what it is worth simply because you can make weekly payments. The thing is that if you were to go to a reputable lot and get a new car, the monthly payment is much less than those weekly payments, but a lower number is deceptive.
So once you have the $2000 car that you agreed to pay $6,000 for so that you could have those weekly payments, you get behind on the payments and they repossess it. They then sell it to cheat'em Auto Sales down the street for $50.00 and sue you for the rest of the payments under the contract. They don't have to answer for how they could sell a $6,000 car for $50 and so you end up getting the short end of the stick and nothing to show for your hard work.
A car dealer can easily make $100,000 off of a junker and still have the car left over to cheat someone else with.
Yes, they can garnish your wages, bank account, execute against your personal property, etc. Basically there are only two ways out: 1)negotiate a settlement with them or 2)take a bankruptcy and discharge the debt.