Posted by crash22 on October 31, 1998 at 14:25:23:
In Reply to: Need advice or professional help in negotiating a settlement with Toyota posted by Thomas Barr on October 26, 1998 at 00:14:59:
Thomas,
Hello, my name is Mike. I went through a similar situation. Mine was in August 1994 with a car from Ford Motor Credit. I did the voluntary repo thing and got my credit all screwed up too. My wife and I moved to VA Beach and wanted to buy a condo there with our baby girl. At first, the Ford thing showed up and they denied us flat telling me that I didn't have enough credit to buy a toaster. After that(and the other numerous credit rejections I got) I decided to call Ford and see what was up. They told me that the account had gone to collections and to call the collection agency they named. I did this and they told me that I owed 8900$ on the car still. I told them that i would not pay that much for a car that I did not have. After a while of squabbling and them calling me every day, we managed to settle for 2600$. That is a fraction of what was owed in the first place. For you, I urge you to call Toyota and find out what collection agency that they turned your account to. Call that agency and find out what they want to do. They will cooperate, they don't get paid until they settle the account. Don't let them fool you into thinking that they are going to sue you because they are not. If they were going to, they would have had to have done it by now. Don't call an attourney because they can not do anything that you can not do yourself so your just wasting money. Give the collection agent time and they will settle for pennies on the dollar. As little as 10% of what is owed. After you settle and agree on something, make sure that they send you something in writing. Take that to your lender, and then they was for a mortgage is clear. Good luck. If you have any more questions, please email me. Thanks
Crash22