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Mom is 75. Beginning of memory loss/dementia. Her husband of 25 years recently passed after a brief illness and didn’t have any life insurance. She has no savings.


Her car payment and insurance are about $650/mo. She owes about $8,500 on the loan. Her $2,100 SS does not leave her any money after rent, utilities, car/ins payments, cell phone. I pay for her groceries and I’m just making ends meet for my immediate family. She won’t drive more than 1 mile to the post office and the grocery store because she’s afraid of getting lost.


She has decided to stop driving.


My question is if she voluntarily has the car repossessed it will affect her credit. At this stage in her life, would there be any reason she would need “good credit” to get into an assisted living/memory care facility? She has no assets at all. She is not going to try for any future loans or credit cards. Reality is that it’s all down hill from here with the memory issues.


Is there any possible reason that ruining her credit with a voluntary repossession would hurt her in the future she has left?

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Was able to get a friends help. Caravana says $16k. Just need to find someone good to get that cigarette smell out of the interior then I think there might be a chance of making a few k. Once the car and car insurance is gone she will have about $600 a month for savings. Hoping to be able to sell for a few k to relieve some stress. Fingers crossed. thanks everybody for all of your advice!!
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sp19690 Jun 2023
Excellent news. They have a few products at Lowe's and walmart to get the cigarette odor out of a car. Just Google getting cigarette smell out of car to find the products.
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I'd sell the car myself. A dealer will not give you fair market value.

Pay off the loan and don't worry about mom's credit. At her age it isn't an issue anymore.

Having this out of sight, out of mind will ease your mom's worries.
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MJ1929 Jun 2023
A dealer will pay dealer value, not private party value. They're two different prices on kbb.com.

They're not necessarily "not paying the value," but they have to make a profit reselling it, and selling to a dealer usually goes hand-in-hand with buying a replacement vehicle, not just a straight sale of the used car.
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From what I heard, used cars are going UP in price. Check to see how much you can sell the car for. If more than the loan, then sell it, pay off the loan and keep the rest to spend on your mom.
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With only 8500 owed on the car you could probably sell it for that or more depending on the year and condition if the car. Dont let it get repossessed there is value in selling it.
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If it is "repossessed" you/she gets nothi8ng, nada, diddly squat for the vehicle. It can be sold and the loan paid off and any remaining goes into her account as an asset that can be used for her care. Chances are pretty good that a car "driven by a little old lady, from Upper Darby PA only on Sundays" might get a better price than the same car driven to and from work every day. Check the "Blue Book" value and see what you get. There are so many ways to sell on line now you do not even have to go anywhere.
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Research car value.
Sell car.
Pay out loan.
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First, hug your mom for deciding on her own to stop driving. Bravo!

Second, get a loan of your own to pay off her car, and then resell it at a higher price. You might make a profit. Since your mom still has a loan, you can’t sell her car without the title.

Third, hug your mom again.
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Lovemom1941 Jun 2023
You can sell a car with a loan to a dealer, they pay the loan off anc give you the rest. It’s done every day.
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Chances are the car is in excellent condition and has low mileage. It's probably worth a lot more than you think!

Lots of people have recommended Carvana, but there are other car-buying companies. (Carmax.com and wepaythemax.com are two examples, not endorsements.) Make sure you shop around to get the best deal. When they ask you why you are selling the car, don't give them a sob story, they will take even more advantage of you.
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AlvaDeer Jun 2023
Yes! Used car value has skyrocketed. Dave Ramsey spoke to someone recently who got more on resale than he paid for the car, and Dave was saying that this is one thing he has had to change his story about, because he always talked about the enormous depreciation on new cars, and recommended buying used.
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Voluntary repossession will almost certainly result in the car selling for less than the loan balance. So there will be a larger amount due, which the lender will try to collect, then sell to debt collectors, and so on.

Confirm that there is no co-signer since their credit would also be at risk.

Best case scenario: you need to get a feel for the private party value of the car, using kbb.com or similar.
If it is more than the loan balance, you should consider trying to sell the car. You can find out from the lender how to most efficiently pay off the loan and transfer the title to the buyer.
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Just as an example, if this is a 2020 Honda Civic purchased with a $25k loan 3 years ago, the car is still worth about 20k.
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anonymous1732518 Jun 2023
Exactly much easier if it's a Toyota or Honda
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