A debt-collection machine that’s chewing up small businesses across America
I&#x27;m sorry, but the fact is that <i>all</i> lenders and banks are like this.<p>I once missed 3 payments in a row during the last <i>6 months</i> of a five year car loan (never missed any other payments). OK, not great, my bad (hey, I was broke). The GMAC loan company then set The Machine in action. My car was repossessed as one would expect. However, <i>everything</i> was stacked against me recovering the car: It was sent 100 miles away to be auctioned off, with any amount of the loan not covered to still be owed by me. Yes, they could sell the car for $10, and I&#x27;d owe the rest. To get the car back, I needed to pay off the rest of the car loan in full, plus interest, plus penalties, plus &quot;storage&quot; fees (per day - this really pissed me off), the city of Menlo Park charged me with something as well because of the tow, and I had to get myself out to Vacaville somehow and go to the regional distribution center with all the paperwork to get the car.<p>This happens so infrequently, the people there were shocked when I showed up (I had gotten a loan from a friend, and spent a week on the phone getting it done before they auctioned the car). Standing in the line with all the dealers looking for cheap cars at auction and repo men who just arrived with BMW&#x27;s they just stole (ahem, recovered) that morning. It was surreal. They had my car in the middle of a sea of other repossessed vehicles parked bumper to bumper. It took them an hour or so just to fish it out. All my possessions in the car had been thrown away.<p>This doesn&#x27;t compare to the horror stories from the subprime loan craziness, nor the abuse in the article, but it just shows that when you take a loan, you are at the mercy of the lender, and they are never merciful. They are normally giant corporations who farm out the work to thousands of happy conspirators who make a living from other people&#x27;s misery, justifying it because the person who took the loan must somehow deserve the treatment.