Mortgage companies will do this, too. In my case, I no longer owned the house.
I signed the papers for a deed-in-lieu on 6 March, and citing the language on the new deed, cancelled the homeowner’s policy effective at midnight the same day.
Come the end of March, and the insurance wing of the mortgage company sent me a letter saying naughty-naughty, get coverage on the house or we’ll do it for you. I sent them a letter saying it was no longer my house, so deal with it.
Late April, I get a letter from the insurance division saying they bought coverage at a greatly inflated rate, I was going to be billed, and if I signed the included paperwork, I could get the purchased coverage at a better rate.
I sent back another letter with a copy of the deed I signed, and told them I wasn’t paying their damned bill because the house was not mine, and if they tried to pursue the matter, I’d see them in court.
They sent back a letter last week saying ‘oops you’re right, disregard the bill and paperwork’.
I wouldn’t mind taking out the extra money and putting it back toward the car. That’s definitely an idea.
I used to be a member of a credit union down at school, but my credit card with them was closed in bad standing during my bankruptcy. I don’t think I could become a member again anyway, since I don’t attend that school anymore (and I’m not an alum, I dropped out). I don’t think I qualify for any other credit unions. I keep getting mail from Capital One to refinance my car, though. They were the first company to offer me a REAL credit card post-BK, so maybe that’d be a good place to start.
Cool. If you do wind up doing the 7500 loan on 7000 car thing, and throw the 500 at the new loan, it will shave a couple of payments off the loan term which is always nice :).
Regarding a credit union: for what it’s worth, you could almost certainly find one that you could join (even if it isn’t physically convenient - and might not be worth it). A lot of them have affinity groups that can join (e.g. we could have joined NASA Federal a while back by signing up for a rocketry club or something). Or if a family member is a member of one, usually they’ll take relatives as well. Some CUs serve people who live in a specific area (there’s one that serves the county I live in). Etc. A locator: Site Map | NCUA
Anyway, that’s hardly what you were asking about in the thread, just thought I’d let you know.
A number of credit unions are now location based. If you live in X, you can join. You no longer need to be a teacher, or a firefighter or a union member.