Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Your question is hard to answer without more information. Generally, depending on the terms of the purchase contract, the lender can pick up the car if you are one day late. Most contracts have a late penalty after 5 days. Many lenders in the past several years have waited as much as 180 days to repossess a car. That said, it all depends on the lender, the past payment history and sometimes the individual collector. many times the collector will have the repossession order out and will not tell the customer of this fact becasue they do not want you to hide the car. Other times the collector will claim it is out for repossession when it really is not. Is this legal? Not really. But often times it is your word against theirs as to what was said.

I see you are in Fresno. I would suggest that you go to the National Association of Consumer Advocates website (NACA.net) and search for an attorney in your area that specializes in debt collection cases such as yours. Or you can try my friend Fred Schwinn (408) 294-6100 in San Jose. They can provide an answer for you.

Good luck.