I get a call yesterday from my sister who works at the car dealership. She wants to know what I want to do with my car. The lease expires 3-6-04. She wanted to know if I want to lease another one or buy this one. She says that I shouldn't have a problem getting a loan without a co-signer this time because she's sure I'll have a big enough credit score now being that I've made all the payments on the car by myself (36 month lease).
Which I have. VERY responsibly if I might add. As a matter of fact, I've always gone out of my way to make the payments on time. I knew this was my one shot to build up some credit and be on the right track for a responsible credit future. My sister, who really isn't my sister just a very close friend, co-signed the loan for me. She also works for Ford, so she got a better deal than your average Joe.
WELL, there was a time where I was late and this is the story:
The first time really wasn't my fault.in the beginning of my lease I used to do this "pay by phone" thing. You'd call every month to the Ford payment hotline. You'd press a few buttons and they'd take the money from your checking account. You'd have to do this every month. Well, because my sister was my cosigner her information was combined with mine so when she began leasing a new car, they made HER car payment with my checking account instead of mine even though she had already sent a check.
She had at the time, a FULLY loaded Lincoln Cadillac at S564.00 a month. Now I only leave enough money in my checking for MY bills. I didn't have the money for my 252.00 payment and winded up bouncing a few checks. I'm one of those paycheck to paycheck type people and it took my working some extra hours at my part-time job to come up with money. Ford made no apology, wouldn't credit my account and basically told me I had to still come up with the money for my lease. After that, I stopped using they "pay by phone" and went back to writing checks and sending them out with the monthly statement.
Then again, in May or June I'm looking at my bank account and notice that I didn't pay the Ford bill. I look throughout my house and couldn't find the monthly statement. I pay my bills when I get sent the bill. I called Ford to see what the problem was. They told me that my sister had filed for bankruptcy and that meant they were longer going to sent me ANY type of correspondence. That I should make a bunch of copies of my last statement and just keep using that to send in my money. I begged and pleaded with them to send me something to no avail. Well, by that time I had done something else with the money in my account and became 30 days behind. I continued to send them check of 325.00 until I thought I had paid them off. This included what I thought were gonna be late fees.
Another two months later, I get a letter in the mail telling me to surrender my vehicle, due to bankruptcy and non-payment. I call Ford tell them it wasn't me that filed and that I've been paying my bill. They apologize, tell me it's a mistake, that I'M CURRENT.
I ask if everything is settled, they say yes, we hang up.
The following month I get same letter, above happens again.
For the past 18 months I've made EVERY effort to pay the bill on time and never gave it a second thought.
In September, (04) I order one of those 3-in-1 credit reports to check my credit. It showed only up to June 03 but doesn't say anything about me being behind. I figure that Ford will update the report once my lease is up. I don't think anything of it.
As it turns out, there's been this lingering $87.52 that I never knew about, So all of the payments I have been making have been going in as 30 days late. So my credit is completely blown and no bank will touch me.
The two times I'd called, (when I got those letters) I must "have been within a few day of being current" and that's why it didn't show.
The guy at Ford (one of the three I spoke to) was the BIGGEST JERK.
I asked him why I don't have late fees then. "Because you co-signer filed for bankruptcy, so you don't get late fees, but if you'd like I take tack on the late fees for the past 18 months just to prove that you were late" And they don't send statements to accounts who have filed for bankruptcy even though I was not the person who filed.
So, because I wasn't getting statements and both times I called I "technically weren't behind", there's nothing they will do. Which doesn't make any sense to me.
Jennifer
Edison, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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