Feb 13 I had gotten my first car from Easterns Motors of Waldorf or at least I thought it was my car. This being my first car and having my brother with me, I felt assured that I wouldn't be cheated. I also felt confident that Easterns could help me, because my credit was bad and the jingle "Your job is your credit" was sort of comforting, especially since I had already been turned down for financing from several other dealers. All I had was a $1000 to put down, which should've helped me. After many hours of paperwork and their 20 something banks that supposedly specialized in 2nd chance lending who turned me down, it was beginning to look hopeless. My steady full-time job, was simply not enough for Easterns. Easterns still wanted my business and wanted to know if I could get a co-signer.
My brother was literally the closest one I could get. He did some paperwork and such, and we actually we went home hours later. (we got there around 6:00PM) Before we went home, they asked me what kind of car I was looking for so they could have it there for me to pick out and I told them a Honda Accord. Between 9-10 pm they called us and said they had some for us to look at and they wanted us to do it tonight. We rushed back up there late in the evening and I saw a nice Silver 03' Honda Accord 4-Door V6 engine. Had a 6 CD changer, leather interior, smelled fresh inside. Very nice car.
They let me test drive the vehicle and it ran pretty smooth. You couldn't hear the engine and I still can't to this day. When we got back to the car lot and sat down to finish the deal that we had spent hours on earlier, I asked the price of the car. He flat out said $20000. Of course, now I realize that they cheated me selling me a 4 yr old car with 55,000 miles on it for $20000, but like I said my first car and my brother was with me. Obviously they took advantage of me. I was angry when some months later, I found that the same car was 8-10k cheaper than what Easterns sold to me from other dealers. I used www.cars.com to look up listings and one thing I noticed is that Easterns was never in their listings and now I know why. With my down payment, the monthly payments were about $470 a month on a six year term.
Thats not the worst part though. It comes down to the signing and the terms. I'm near clueless at this part, but thats because I never signed any papers. My brother signed all the paperwork that night and while I thought I was a co-signer, I wasn't. Thats right. The car isn't mine, its in my brother's name and I'm PAYING FOR IT. I didn't go to buy my brother a car, he already has his own vehicle and hes never driven the Honda since the day I bought it. I realized this when I checked my credit score some months later and that there were no changes or alerts. That means the credit I could be establishing over the next SIX YEARS goes to my brother!!! They just left me out of the equation even though I was the one paying for it. They even increased the monthly payments by $20 when their lender found out I would be the driver and the one paying for it, which makes even less sense for my name not to be on it and conveniently the lender doesn't refinance.
So for almost two years, I've been driving a car that doesn't belong to me and making payments of $470 a month establishing no credit. I am desperately seeking a bank or lender who can re-finance me. My credit isn't that bad and I've been making payments on the car since day 1. No missed payments, current and no late fees.
If anyone knows a bank or lender that could assist me, please give a name or link because I'm in a bad spot of my young life. I cannot afford to be responsible for someone elses credit when I don't have any of my own. I don't have my own place and in six years, I will need my brothers signature to get anything... I'd trade it in, but its not worth $16000 and I'd just be paying more than what I owe now. Please help me.
Last but not least. Don't deal with Easterns. I came across this site while looking for second chance financing and I shocked to see the reviews from the other users. I found out now through my search for a different lenders to re-finance that I could have gotten approved and financed through several other banks and lenders with better deals, so no ones credit is that bad that you have to get cheated by Easterns. Even my own credit isn't that bad. Don't even send your worst enemy there.
P.S. It doesn't end there or didn't. I didn't mention the several amount of times we had to go back up there and re-do things, because they wanted other information from my brother (bills and other various documents because the bank seemed concerend about him as well even though he wasn't making the payments), had to get tag changed again and some other drama that nearly drove my brother and I crazy. The car was even suspended for x months and I only found that out sometime after I applied for a college course on an air force base.
M. Hamilton
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
U.S.A.
0 comments