I am also, as much as it pangs me, indebted to Americredit. They offered to refinance my car, with a lower interest rate which sadly was still 14%. It wasn't that I had BAD credit, but lack of credit. I was a single mom, didn't want to burden anyone with co-signing so I did it on my own the only way I could - financing through a company that offered an interest rate of 16.9%. A year later Americredit offered a lower rate so I went for it. I didn't know anything about them other than it was a lower interest rate. I still to this day don't understand simple financing. I'm an educated person, don't get me wrong, I just don't understand this particular area. I've been late several times and not because I didn't have the money, I just forgot to send the payment. I don't make any of my payments on the DAY they're due unless they're automatic drafts. I simply have too much going on and have entirely too many bills. They all get paid within a week of their due date and i'm never short, I can absolutely "afford" to pay my bills. But with companies like Americredit, you will be approached by each and every CSR with the attitude that you're subprime and so you're treated with ZERO respect and a condescending agent on the other line. With any other of my financiers, if I'm late they don't harrass me. They know that I KNOW, that i've got a responsibility. I don't need an hourly reminder. My only real experience with an agent was during my maternity leave and after a hurricane disaster prevented us from using any kind of communication device in our city. They were somewhat understanding but when I reached an agent who talked down to me and listened to my situation as "just another excuse", I quickly reminded the person that HE was the one on the other line making $7/hr, not me.in any case I didn't have any penalties because of the circumstances and the natural disaster situation but still. The fact is, they treat you like you're a criminal and have already labeled you from the get go. I can only imagine if I was faced at their mercy with no way to pay them like a lot of complaints I am reading.
My situation is that my credit score is now at a very good level.
What bothers me is I am not permitted to refinance the car because of the mileage and because mostly interest has been paid thus far, I'm significantly upside down on the vehicle. I have paid $22K and still have a pay off of $23K and the vehicle sticker price was only 20.5K. My other vehicle is financed at 6%. Each time I make a payment to Americredit for this car it kills me. Granted they provided me with what I needed when I needed it but it's not an excuse to operate the way they do. What I am battling now is do I continue to pay this car because I have to pay for my mistakes or inadequecies in the past or do I go and buy another vehicle, at a 5% interest rate and just hand this other vehicle back to Americredit and deal with 7 years of a repo on my record along with daily harrassment. For ethical reasons I was hesitant to just give the car up but after anayzing it and looking deeply into how companies like Americredit work, it's not even a question anymore. They've MADE their money off of me. I am now very well established financially and my credit score can afford to take a repo hit and still be strong. Additionally, my husband and I have discussed it and both agree the wisest thing to do is let it go, suffer a hit for a couple of years, rely on his credit if we need to and move on.
Sometimes you just have to go this route. Yes there are those of you who would argue how unethical this is and how if we didn't live beyond our means we wouldn't get into messes like this and that its not the responsibility of companies like Americredit to bail us out of our situations. The bottom line is that assessing our current economic situation and the companies that got us into this mess in teh first place, the stupidest thing I could do is continue paying to a company that is only getting what it deserves. I don't feel a BIT bad for screwing Americredit over, they did it to me long enough and they have and WILL still come out ahead. I can handle 8 calls a day if it means I don't have to pay another penny to them.
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