During the numbers process the sales guy asked me how much was left on the loan for the traded in car. I told him 2100 and change and gave him my next payment notice which had the exact payoff amount listed. The exact amount was 2167.46. I saw that he wrote down what I said of $ 2100.
Two days later the sale went through, papers signed, old car turned over, drove away in new car.
Now I get notice from Wells Fargo that $2100 was paid, but that the loan has a final balance of $67.46. However the dealer has taken ownership of the car, and in fact they shipped it off to a wholesale lot.
The 1st thing I do with any installment loan is make 4-5 months’ worth of payments right away to get ahead. So the next payment date (per my statement) is not until mid-February of next year. So a couple questions.
[ul]
[li]Who owes the final $ 67.46? I think the dealer does since they agreed to pay off the note for possession of the traded in auto. If they got the numbers wrong why is that my issue ?[/li]
[li]How is the wholesale lot going to get clear title to re-sell the car, if I refuse to make that payment for a couple months ?[/li][/ul]
If you saw the salesman write down 2100, you should have stopped him and made him write the correct amount.
You’re responsible for the 67.46. The loan’s in your name. The title was already transferred to the dealer. You could have chosen to transfer the car to the dealer for $0, in which case you’d owe 2167.46. Wells Fargo doesn’t care about the details, they just want their money, and you signed the note.
You can go back to the dealership and complain, for less than $100 they may do you a solid. Or not.
First, IANAL, IANAUCS*, so I’m don’t have lock solid info you can take to the bank.
But I agree with the previous poster, it’s your loan so it’s your bill. The bank doesn’t care what you did with the car. You could have sold it for a loss, for a gain, burned it in your front yard or cut it in half. You entered into a legal agreement with the bank. They upheld their end of the bargain and gave you the loan. You need to upload yours and pay it off.
The $68 isn’t probably a lot to you if you can afford a new car. But your credit rating is and being taken to small claims court over this or having to pay lawyer’s fee to a collection agency would be.
Because you gave them the number. And as said, it’s a little weird that you watched the guy write down $2,100 even though you apparently knew at the time that that was not the exact number.
The title still is on file at Wells Fargo (or their third party title company) and won’t be released to anyone until the loan is paid in full. The dealer will likely be contacting you soon to see why the title has not been delivered to them, if you don’t contact them first.
At the time we were doing the “initial” numbers. That is to get an order of magnitude of what my next loan amount was to be, as I put down a fair bit of cash down payment also. He had a copy of my last loan statement with the exact amount which I had given to him. In signing the mountain of paperwork I had to do at the signing, I just forgot on that when I went down the numbers in the sales agreement.
I understand the loan is in my name and I will make sure it is paid in the end. However as I said I was months ahead on payments and the final payment date is in February of 2016.
So I am just curious as to what the wholesaler can do with that car without the clear title which I am sure Wells Fargo will not give up till they get their 67.46.
The fact that you saw him write down $2100 initially is irrelevant. And I agree that I wouldn’t necessarily make a fuss about it at the time, since it’s not clear whether they want to-the-penny values at that point.
Did you sign a piece of paper with that value on it, attesting that it was the amount owed?
Do payments work like that? If I pay off my credit card every month, they still expect me to pay the minimum the next month, even if I paid thousands the month prior.
Worst case scenario is that the wholesaler complains to the dealer that they handed over a car without a clean title, and the dealer comes back to you and says, “You tried to trade in a car that you owe more money on. Give us back the $2,100.”
Its possible the numbers got moved around a bit later on to make everything work out ok. I don’t know exactly how it works with car loans but having signed a few home loans, I know that because every single day’s interest must be accounted for, the exact amounts are not definite until all the paperwork is finalized.
I suspect the dealer has already paid the $67 somewhere. Surely they didn’t send $2100 with a $2167 payment stub. Someone in the back does this all day long and knows to get proof of the exact amount and send the exact amount. There’s probably a form they fill out. “Where’s that account number… ah right here on this stub that says $2167…”
I too have a auto loan with Wells Fargo, and I paid a big chunk of dough a few months back. I plan to pay off the 5 year loan in about 2 years, so when I have a few extra benjamins laying around I send them in. As luck would have it, i sold a car I had restored and had about $4000, so I made a big payment. That is about 11 payments at my usual monthly amount. I got a letter from WF a few weeks later, saying that my loan terms allowed me to pay up to 3 months in advance, but the normal monthly payments would be expected again. So basically I had three months in which I did not have to make a payment, but then they expected their usual monthly payment.
But, in reference to this circumstance, At this point it’s kind of the dealers headache. Wells Fargo is not giving them a title, if the payoff amount is short, so they have a car they legally cannot move. You will not be bothered by WF for three months, I bet. The dealer will want to move the car way before that. I’ll bet the dealer will pay the extra money just to be able to move the car. You may never hear a word of this.
Everything depends on the details of the contract you signed with the dealer. If it says that the dealer agrees to pay the full remaining balance on the loan, then the dealer now owes the money. If it says that the dealer agrees to pay off an amount of the loan equal to the amount written below, and that amount is $2100, then you still owe the money.
Sounds to me like you could just stick a note on your calendar a couple weeks before the next payment is due. Forget about it until then.
Either the dealer will pay it off, or you’ll have to pay it, but just not doing anything does possibly mean it will get paid. When it comes up on your calendar in 10 weeks, log in and check. If it has been paid, don’t do anything, if you still owe $67, pay up.
In California, WF would not have released the title to the dealership UNTIL the loan had been satisfied, in full. Which means the dealer paid it, but, there’s most likely a little provision in the payoff agreement that says you’ll be responsible for the extra amount if it differs from what you represented. They gave you $2100, not $2167.
Same thing if you told them $2100 and it was really $2030. You’d have no problem asking for your 70 bucks back. You technically owe the $67.
Is there a risk he will cause a problem with the trade in ? Could they try to reverse the trade in ? eg keep it, use it as a loan car at the lot, and then give you back the car in 6 months, and expect $2100 ?
Or if you rush to pay the deficit, you might be paying it for no reason.
The finance company may waive it (the car yard may be hoping for this.), or the car yard may pay it for you… Especially if its in contract.
Perhaps call the car yard for advice. They’ve probably got it sorted… (the problem of the ‘latest statement’ being a bit old occurs all the time…)